Michèle Morgan Movies

Originally titled Gribouille, Marc Allegret's Heart of Paris serves as an excellent vehicle for that matchless stage and screen favorite Raimu. The star is cast as bourgeois family man Camille Morestau, who while serving on a jury in a murder trial takes pity on the accused, waiflike Natalie Rougin (Michele Morgan). Through a series of unlikely circumstance, Morestau invites Natalie to move in with himself and his family for the duration of the trial. Morestau's son Claude (Gilbert Gil) assumes there's some hanky panky going on between his father and Natalie, whereupon he takes a serious interest in the girl himself. Realizing that her presence has caused serious dissension in the Morestau household, Natalie prepares to leave-but not before "borrowing" a few valuables to finance her exit. The ending of Heart of Paris is somewhat grimmer than the one utilized in its American remake, The Lady in Question, in which the three main characters were portrayed by Brian Aherne, Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The English-language title of L'Entraineuse is Nightclub Hostess, the profession held down by leading lady Michele Morgan. Tired of her job and its tawdry trappings, Morgan jumps at the chance to enjoy a 15-day vacation on the Riviera. So as to avoid being ostracized, our heroine keeps her nightclub background a secret, passing herself off as a respectable young lady to her new circle of friends. This leads to a blissful romance with handsome, upright young college student Gilbert Gil. Alas, when Morgan's gangster acquaintance Andrex and his moll Giselle Preville arrive on the scene, the girl's dreams for a rosy future are irreparably shattered. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This French-German co-production stars Jean Gabin in his standard screen role of a fugitive from justice. Unable to return to his own country, Trott Lennart (Gabin) takes a job with a gun-running operation in Mexico. Even though it is proven that Lennart is innocent of the charges against him, his current illegal activities arouse the attentions of diligent detective Abboy (Pierre Renoir), who harbors a long-standing grudge against the hero. Escaping to the woods, Lennart links up with Lillian White (Michele Morgan), likewise escaping from the Law. Not quite as fatalistic as many French productions of the era, the film permits hero and heroine to escape scot free, though with a few unusual conditions. Written by the prolific Charles Spaak, Recif de Corail was released in the U.S. as Coral Reefs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At first glance, we seem to be watching the 1934 Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical The Gay Divorcee, which opens with a montage of Paris nightspots. Suddenly, however, stock footage from that earlier film is cut short, the screen goes dark, and an offscreen radio voice announces the Nazi invasion of France. At this point, the plot of Joan of Paris gets under way. Michèle Morgan plays a Parisian barmaid, Joan, whose patron saint is Joan of Arc. Thus, she considers it her bounden duty to aid Free French pilot Paul Lavallier (Paul Henreid) and his RAF comrades (one of whom is Alan Ladd) in their efforts to escape from occupied France. And if this means that Joan must face death at the hands of slimy Gestapo chief Herr Funk (Laird Cregar), she's eager and willing to make that sacrifice. One of the earliest French Underground dramas, Joan of Paris posted a neat profit for ever-in-the-red RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heart of a Nation was filmed in 1940, just after the Nazi occupation of Paris. The film traces the fortunes of the Froment family of Montmartre, from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to World War II. Comedy and tragedy are deftly blended throughout; Raimu's visit to the Moulin Rouge is as hilarious as Michele Morgan's loss of an arm during World War I is heartbreaking. When the Nazis became privy to the existence of Heart of a Nation, they ordered its director (Julien Duvivier) arrested and the negative destroyed. Both director and negative managed to escape to the U.S., where a dubbed version of Heart of a Nation was finally made available in 1943. Intriguingly enough, the man responsible for the salvation of the film was a German officer who happened to be a fan of Duvivier's work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Higher and Higher was advertised by RKO Radio as "The Sinatra Show", and small wonder: In his first major film role, Frank Sinatra was easily the film's biggest box-office draw. Actually, Frankie was a last minute addition to the film, which began as a traditional adaptation of a popular Broadway musical. Repeating his original stage role, Jack Haley plays Mike, the head servant in the household of millionaire Mr. Drake (Leon Errol). When Drake faces bankruptcy, Mike rallies the servants together and cooks up a moneymaking scheme: they'll pass off pretty scullery maid Millie (Michele Morgan) as Drake's daughter, and marry her off to a wealthy bachelor. Complicating matters is Sir Bictor Fitzroy Victor (Victor Borge), an impoverished nobleman who is himself looking for a rich wife. Mike saves the day with a last-minute discovery in the wine cellar, but not before a series of hilarious and tuneful plot twists involving Millie, heiress Katherine (Barbara Hale), and hired help Mickey (Marcy McGuire) and Marty (Mel Torme). Hastily written into the proceedings as Drake's next door neighbor, Sinatra croons several standards-to-be, including "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night" and "This is a Lovely Way to Spend an Evening"; he also is arbitrarily permitted the film's closing shot, emerging from heavenly clouds like the Second Coming of Music. Thanks to the film's enormous box-office take, everybody was happy with Higher and Higher--except Jack Haley, understandably miffed that his onetime starring role was whittled down to a supporting part to allow more screen time for the estimable Mr. Sinatra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Pierre Bost and Jean Aurenche from a novel by Andre Gide, Symphonie Pastorale proved yet another box-office success for popular French filmmaker Jean Delannoy. Michelle Morgan stars as a blind orphaned girl who is adopted by kindly pastor Pierre Blancher. The pastor's paternal affection for the girl blossoms into romantic love, despite the fact that he's already married. As a form of courtship, Delannoy fills the sightless Morgan's head with visions of a "perfect" world, as harmonious as her favorite musical piece, Beethoven's Symphonie Pastorale (you'll recall that composition from Disney's Fantasia). Delannoy's son Jean Desailly, likewise falling in love with Morgan, arranges for an operation that will restore the girl's sight. This plunges Delannoy into despair: once Morgan sees the world for herself, and not as an idyllic image conjured up by the pastor, she will be lost to him forever. A delicate, evenly-paced fable ending in tragedy, Symphonie Pastorale was harpooned in later years by New Wave critics who complained that Delannoy, Bost and Aurenche "trivialized" their adaptations of literary classics. The audiences, who ate up the film like cotton candy, didn't seem to be bothered in the least over the filmmakers' so-called diminishing of the Gide original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the Graham Greene story The Basement Room, director Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol is told almost completely from a child's eye view-but it isn't a children's story. Young Bobby Henrey idolizes household butler Ralph Richardson. Therefore, when it seems as though Richardson might be implicated in a murder, Bobby does his best to throw the police off the track. The boy succeeds only in casting even more suspicion upon Richardson. As the story progresses, Henrey's hero worship is eroded by Richardson's shifty behavior, and even more so when the boy discovers that the butler's boasts of previous heroism are just so much hot air. The ending of the film differs radically from Greene's story. While it would seem that director Reed was merely paying homage to the "happy ending" philosophy (hardly likely, given the doleful climaxes of such films as Odd Man Out and The Third Man), the director had very solid reasons for altering the story: he was more fascinated by the concept of the boy's imagination nearly sending his idol to the gallows, rather than having the butler entrapped by facts. And though the ending is happy for the boy, the butler's fate is much more nebulous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

La Bella Que Volla is based on The Career of Doris Hart, a glossy, soap opera-ish novel by Vicki Baum. Michele Morgan plays a young ballerina named Jeanine, who falls in love with dangerously impulsive artist Pierre (Henri Vidal). When Pierre finds Jeanine in the arms of another, he shoots her. Jeanine survives, but just barely. Though her heart has been irreparably damaged, her ardor for Pierre does not cool. She returns to the ballet, in order to raise enough money to spring Pierre from prison. There won't be a dry eye in the house during the film's final ten minutes. La Bella Que Volla affords the viewer the rare opportunity to see prima ballerina Ludmila Tcherina in action. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though French director Jean Gremillon's postwar films were nowhere near as brilliant as his prewar efforts, they still afforded plenty of entertainment value. L'Etrange Madame X stars Michele Morgan as Irene, a woman torn between two lovers. Married to aristocratic Jacques (Maurice Escande), Irene is devoted to her husband, yet she cannot resist the charms of low-born laborer Etienne (Henri Vidal). Her passionate affair with Etienne results in a pregnancy, which Jacques accepts with dignified resignation. Etienne, however, is less understanding, especially when he learns that Irene is not the humble housemaid she has pretended to be. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

La Minute de Verite (The Moment of Truth) stars Jean Gabin as happily married French physician Pierre. Upon treating a would-be suicide, Pierre finds out that his patient was once the lover of the doctor's wife Madeleine (Michele Morgan). Confronting his wife with this information, Pierre is compelled to trace back the history of his 10-year marriage to find out what went wrong. Director Jean Delannoy combines some very perceptive views of the human condition with moments of unexpected shock and sensationalism. Otherwise, La Minute de Verite is more straightforward and less laden with symbolism than earlier Delannoy works. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide