Marie Bell Movies
Actress Marie Bell, born Marie-Jeanne Bellon-Downey, began her film career as a supporting actress in a number of French silent films. She made her performing debut as a dancer in England when she was only 13. She went on to study drama at the Paris Conservatory. After appearing in films for four years Bell joined the distinguished Comedie-Française. She did not become a well-known actress until the advent of sound. Her most famous films are Le Grand Jeu (1934) and Un Carnet de Bal (1937). For her work for the French Resistance during WW II, Bell was awarded the Legion of Honor by General de Gaulle. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1972
Thomas (Jacques Charrier) is a sailor who has deserted from the Navy in this gentle French drama. He has found refuge in a seaside bordello. Romantic difficulties blossom as he and Flora (Catherine Rouvert), one of the house's prostitutes, fall in love with each other. When he hurts her, however, the denizens of the house agree that he must leave ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Bell, Jacques Charrier, (more)
- 1968
Jean Racine's 17th-century tragedy finds Phedre (Marie Bell) professing her love for her stepson when her husband King Thesee is rumored to be dead. When the king returns very much alive, his son Hippolyte is banished and later is killed in a chariot accident. The irate king makes plans to poison his wife for her alleged infidelities with his son. The feature appears to be a filmed version of the play. Jacques Dacqumine plays the king torn between his love for his son and the woman who chose to love the ill-fated Hippolyte. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Bell, Claude Giraud, (more)
- 1966
While his icy wife is away tending to a sick friend, Benedict Boniface (Alec Guinness) has an affair with Marcelle Cot (Gina Lollobrigida), the pretty but neglected wife of the pompous architect Henri (Robert Morley). When Henri unexpectedly returns, Marcelle and Benedict don disguises and hide out to avoid being caught by her husband. The comedy of errors allows for several sight gags and farcical bedroom situations. Peggy Mount is particularly effective as the dominating wife who makes her husband tremble with fear by her very presence. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Guinness, Gina Lollobrigida, (more)
- 1965
American Andrew (Michael Craig) comes with his young wife Sandra (Claudia Cardinale) to her Italian estate, where she again finds herself a prisoner of the past: the memories of her dead father, hostility towards her mother, and her strange relationship with her brother Gianni (Jean Sorel). Psychological chamber pieces weren't the most fruitful area for director Luchino Visconti, who was more successful in grandiose costume spectacles, but his high professionalism and touch of style helped the film find admirers; it received the Grand-Prix at the Venice Film Festival. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudia Cardinale, Jean Sorel, (more)
- 1964
In this romantic drama, a middle-aged gambler tells a casino croupier her life story. The story is told in flashback and chronicles the woman's romantic exploits with men. Though she was involved with many men, only one really touched her heart. He was a bartender who was tragically shot and killed during an attempted robbery. She later marries and has a daughter. Unfortunately she alienates herself from her daughter when she has an affair with her daughter's fiance. Her remorse is short lived. The film jumps back to the present with the woman leaving the casino on the arm of a handsome millionaire. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Bell, Annie Girardot, (more)
- 1947
In this drama, set after the Napoleonic Wars, the aristocratic Chabert comes back to his palatial home to find that his wife has remarried. She had given Chabert, whom she never really loved, up for dead. Her new husband, who is also richer, makes her much happier. To protect her new life, the wife calls Chabert an imposter and has him committed to an asylum. He sneaks out and wanders the streets where he meets and becomes friends with the impoverished street folk. By the time his true identity is revealed it is too late. Chabert has decided to renounce his aristocracy and opts to live with the poor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raimu, Marie Bell, (more)
- 1938
Legions D'Honneur begins during the final stages of a military court-martial. The tribunal demands that lieutenant Albert Jacquin explain how he received the gunshot wound which prevented him from returning to his regiment. When he refuses to do so, it is determined that Jacquin shot himself to avoid service, and he is stripped of his rank. Re-enlisting as a private, Jacquin at last decides to tell his story in its entirety to his attorney Pierre Renoir. The hero's reminiscences are filled to overflowing with amorous intrigue involving Marie Bell, the wife of his superior officer Charles Vanel. With a final, characteristically self-sacrificial gesture, Jacquin is able to secure Bell's future happiness at the expense of his own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Vanel, Marie Bell, (more)
- 1938
Noix de Coco (Cocoanut) was adapted by Marcel Archard from his own stage play. The incomparable Raimu plays a prosperous horticulturist, happily married to his young second wife Marie Bell. Raimu's blissful existence is threatened when he discovers that Bell was previously a sexy nightclub chanteuse in a notorious Saigon watering hole called the Noix de Coco. He further discovers that his beloved wife may well have shared more than her singing talents with her fans. Now Raimu is obliged to keep his wife's past a deep dark secret from his snooty, super-judgmental daughter-in-law Suzet Mais. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Bell, Suzet Mais, (more)
- 1937
In this episodic French drama, a widow uncovers a 20-year-old dance card from a ball. Just for fun, she decides to find all of her former partners. Her search becomes the framework for the episodes. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Bell, Françoise Rosay, (more)
- 1934
Jacques Feyder's sole directorial contribution in 1934 (and his first film since 1931) was the superior Foreign Legion melodrama Le Grand Jeu (The Full Deck). Scripted by frequent Feyder collaborator Charles Spaak, the film focuses on Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-Willm), whose efforts to support his beloved Florence (Marie Bell) in the style to which she's accustomed cause him to run afoul of the Law. Escaping a charge of embezzlement, Pierre signs up with the Foreign Legion, intending to "forget." After a particularly violent skirmish with the natives, Pierre briefly loses his memory, whereupon he begins keeping time with Irma, a sexy camp-follower whom he imagines to be Florence. When his tour of duty is over, Pierre prepares to return home to Paris to collect an unexpected inheritance. Reunited with the real Florence, he finds he cannot get over Irma, the little trollop who gave him a new lease on life back in the desert. Unwilling to go back to France without Irma, Pierre returns to the Foreign Legion -- where, inevitably, he meets his doom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Vanel, Marie Bell, (more)
