Michel Auclair Movies

An established film favorite in both her native Sweden and Hollywood, Viveca Lindfors made her French film debut in Singoalla. Lindfors plays the title character, a wild-eyed gypsy lass who falls in love with a nobleman (Michel Auclair) The plot thickens when the nobleman's son (Johnny Chambot) likewise lusts for Singoalla. Director Christian-Jacque exhibits his customary lack of restraint, which in this instance is a plus rather than a minus. Filmed in French, Swedish and English versions, Singoalla was also released as The Wind is My Lover and The Mask and the Sword. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

L'Aiguille Rouge is a mountain-climbing melodrama, a genre more indigenous to the German cinema than to French films. Set in the French Alps, the film stars Michel Auclair and Michelle Philippe as Florian and Myra, young lovers fascinated with scaling the heights (in every sense of the phrase!) Their ardor reaches a fever pitch at a mountain resort, but tragedy looms on the horizon. Director E. E. Reinert stages many of the climbing sequences in the studio, using alpine mockups in the background. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Loving husband Charles (Bernard Blier) brings his handsome young friend Maurice (Michel Auclair) home to meet his wife, Fernande (Madeleine Robinson). Charles' equally loving missus is delighted to have Maurice as a guest. A little too delighted, as it turns out. In the course of a single evening, Fernande and Maurice become lovers, then conspire to murder poor Charles. There are too many plot twists to detail here--and besides, it isn't fair to give away surprise endings. Suffice to say that, despite the farcical nature of the plot, L'Invite du Mardi is anything but amusing...especially to the character played by Bernard Blier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This German drama tells the story of a musician who is killed and leaves his work unfinished. His apprentice is cleared of the murder and turns out to be the real composer. ~ All Movie Guide

Holiday for Henrietta (originally released in 1952 as La Fete a Henriette) is a Pirandellian comedy about the art of moviemaking. Louis Seigner and Henri Cremieux play a team of screenwriters whose latest project is stuck in a mire of indecision. Should fictional heroine Henriette (Dany Robin) be permitted a happy ending as the romantic Seigner insists, or suffer an unhappy one as "film noir" specialist Cremieux demands? While the screenwriters hash out their contrasting points of view, we see a film-within-a-film, dramatizing the formulating screenplay and its abrupt changes of mood and direction. Finally reaching a compromise, the writers are interrupted by one of the actors in their imaginary movie, who informs them that their "original" plot has already been filmed! When Hollywood got hold of Holiday for Henrietta, it pumped up this modest project into a bloated star vehicle for Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, titled Paris When It Sizzles (63). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Michel Auclair is the leading character (he certainly isn't the hero!) in the French Bonnes a Tuer (Ripe for Killing). A two-bit hustler from a poor family, Auclair manages to break into society by seducing and abandoning a series of female domestics. Once he's made it to the big time, he lines his pockets by promising to keep spicy tidbits out of the scandal magazines. After several romantic liaisons, Auclair perversely invites his former wife, his present one, his future one and his mistress to a party, intending to murder one of the ladies and then get away with it. He doesn't. Almost Wellesian in its use of multiple flashbacks, Bonnes a Tuer is far more slick and elaborate than its seamy subject matter deserves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sacha Guitry's Si Versailles M'Etait Conte (If Versailles Were Told to Me) is best known by its American title Royal Affairs in Versailles. In addtion to writing and directed the film, Guitry reserves for himself the plum role of Louis XIV. Concentrating on the palace of Versailles over a period of 300 years, the storyline concentrates on the various amorous and political intrigues of three French kings. The plot manages to wend its way through the French revolution, coming to a halt in "the present". The star-studded supporting cast includes Jean Marais as Louis XV, Claudette Colbert as Mme. Montespan, Micheline Presle as Mme. Pompadour, and, best of all, Orson Welles as a gouty Ben Franklin. Most currently available prints of Si Versailles M'Etait Conte are severely edited, and fail to do justice to the rich Eastmancolor hues of the original version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Reproduction Interdite (Copying Forbidden) is a heavily plotted meller about an art forgery. A clever gang of thieves plots to remove a valuable Gaugin from a museum, create an imitation of the masterpiece, then pass off the phony as the genuine article. Yes, the villains are clever, but they never figure in the human element. Complicating this "perfect crime" is an imperfect murder and a few other unforeseen roadblocks to success. Reproduction Interdite was purchased for American consumption by a TV syndication firm specializing in providing "new" material for the Late Late Shows throughout the nation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Les Fantatiques is set in a mythical South American country. An anti-government faction intends to topple the present regime by whatever means necessary. One of the bolder revolutionaries plants a time-bomb on the plane bearing the President. The outcome of this act of terrorism, and the consequences of that outcome, are predictable, but tense and exciting nonetheless. Pierre Fresnay and Michel Auclair deliver topnotch performances as the titular fanatics (one of whom is a shade more temperate than the other), while Gregoire Aslan is appropriately loathsome as the despotic president. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide