Madeleine Renaud Movies

A woman (Madeleine Renaud) whose son (Jean-Pierre Aumont) has been estranged from her for years travels to visit him in Paris. Despite offers of money and position, he would prefer to remain a petty thief, gigolo, and paid dancer rather than have anything to do with his mother. She has factories in Indochina which, despite political reverses, still run under her direction, and they could have been put under his control. The lad is happy enough to steal the jewels and money she has left lying around for just that purpose, knowing that he is too proud to accept gifts. His unhappy childhood in Indochina has left him too bitter to be approached. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This satirical French drama is based on a novel by Antoine Blondin. Fired by wanderlust and urged on by his mother, Taitro leaves his wife and children to seek work in Paris. The mother is hoping to break up the marriage, as she doesn't like her daughter-in-law. Thanks to his mother, Taitro has letters of introduction to various people, one of which actually proves to be of help. While rich in adventure, his stay in Paris does not result in work or even in much satisfaction. He returns to his wife, but when they embrace, his wife is shot by his mother, who hoped she had caught her with another man. Though his Parisian friends welcome him back, Taitro is unable to settle down, and takes up the life of a vagabond. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The Longest Day is a mammoth, all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, personally orchestrated by Darryl F. Zanuck. Whenever possible, the original locations were utilized, and an all-star international cast impersonates the people involved, from high-ranking officials to ordinary GIs. Each actor speaks in his or her native language with subtitles translating for the benefit of the audience (alternate "takes" were made of each scene with the foreign actors speaking English, but these were seen only during the first network telecast of the film in 1972). The stars are listed alphabetically, with the exception of John Wayne, who as Lt. Colonel Vandervoort gets separate billing. Others in the huge cast include Eddie Albert, Jean-Louis Barrault, Richard Burton, Red Buttons, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Gert Frobe, Curt Jurgens, Peter Lawford, Robert Mitchum, Kenneth More, Edmond O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Jean Servais, Rod Steiger and Robert Wagner. Paul Anka, who wrote the film's title song, shows up as an Army private. Scenes include the Allies parachuting into Ste. Mere Englise, where the paratroopers were mowed down by German bullets; a real-life sequence wherein the German and Allied troops unwittingly march side by side in the dark of night; and a spectacular three-minute overhead shot of the troops fighting and dying in the streets of Quistreham. The last major black-and-white road-show attraction, The Longest Day made millions, enough to recoup some of the cost of 20th Century Fox's concurrently produced Cleopatra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The works of Guy de Maupassant have likely been adapted by more French filmmakers than those of any other author (with the possible exception of Georges Simenon). Max Ophuls harnesses three Maupassant short stories to suit his artistic purposes in Le Plaisir (House of Pleasure). In "The Mask," an aging lothario (Jean Galland) learns more about himself than he cares to when he dons a mask to cover his wrinkles. In "The House of Madame Tellier," the proprietress of a brothel (Madeline Renaud) closes up shop one day for an unusual (for her) personal mission. And in "The Model," both the title character (Simone Simon) and her artist-lover (Daniel Gelin) pay the price for her romantic impulsiveness. Each of the playlets in Le Plaisir explore conflicting sides of human nature -- a theme common to both the works of Maupassant and the films of Ophuls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The French upper class is chastised in this socially conscious drama that centers on a naive young woman who travels to a mountain resort to be with her fiancé. She is expecting a romantic weekend, but she is terribly disappointed to discover that the wealthy patrons are naught but soulless vessels living only to suck the life out those less fortunate. She is really shocked to discover that her own lover has become one of these useless dilettantes who unfeelingly destroys their relationship when he finds it boring. The young woman then meets a man who works on a local dam. It is he that instills real values in her and saves her from a greedy fellow who wants her. In the end, the girl and the worker run away together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Originally filmed and released in 1941 as Remorques, this heavy-breathing French melodrama was distributed stateside in 1946 as Stormy Waters. The film was a typical Jean Gabin vehicle, replete with two-fisted action, star-crossed romance and intense emotional turbulence. Gabin plays Laurent, a salvage-boat captain who rescues a merchant vessel from a storm-tossed sea. The vessel's far-from-grateful captain (Jean Marchat) manages to skip without paying Laurent his salvage money, leaving behind his wife Catherine (Michele Morgan). Tending to Catherine's injuries until they reach port, Laurent falls in love with the woman, despite the fact that he is already married to the seriously ill Yvonne (Madeleine Renaud). It takes a lot of doing, but Laurent eventually ends his affair and allows his own wife to expire believing that he's been 100% faithful. An enormous success in France, Stormy Waters was picked up for American distribution by MGM, which surprisingly buried the film in its second-string houses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Helene is based on Helene Wilfur, a novel by Vicki (Grand Hotel) Baum. Madeleine Renaud essays the title role, a young medical student in love with aspiring musician Pierre Regnier (Jean-Lous Barrault). Pierre's father, a noted surgeon, puts pressure on his son to give up music in favor of medicine. Unable to withstand his father's remonstrations, Pierre kills himself, prompting the grieving Madeleine to forget all about romance and dedicate her life to the cause of healing others. Wilfur avoids the usual soap-opera goo by offering realistic performances and credible dialogue (the English-language subtitles were composed by erudite film critic Herman G. Weinberg). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tullio Carminatti, fresh from a series of successful Broadway and film appearances, returned to Europe to star in La Marcia Nuziale (The Wedding March). Carminati plays the philandering husband of long-suffering Diana Lante. Upon his introduction to Lante's school-chum Kiki Palmer, who has recently shed herself of a dreary husband, Carminati wastes no time going "on the make" for Palmer. Unable to resist his charms, Palmer is on the verge of killing herself, but decides instead that she'd be better off with her dull but dependable ex-husband than with the overwhelmingly charming Carminatti. La Marcia Nuziale was based on a play by Henry Bataille. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Keeping one step ahead of the Nazis, German director Kurt (Curtis) Bernhardt fled to Paris to film this French-language adaptation of Bernard Kellerman's novel The Tunnel. Jean Gabin heads the cast as two-fisted engineer Mac Allen, whose sole ambition in life is to build a Transatlantic tunnel from New York to Europe. It takes him 15 years to achieve this goal, thanks to the crooked machinations of his own boss, among many others. His ultimate success is bittersweet, inasmuch as Allen's wife Mary (Madeleine Renaud) dies in an accident just before the tunnel's completion. Threatened with expulsion from the French film industry, director Bernhardt was obliged to film a German version of The Tunnel in Munich, resulting in his arrest by the Gestapo, from which he escaped by the skin of his teeth. An English-language version of the film, directed by Maurice Elvey and retitled Transatlantic Tunnel, was completed in 1935, utilizing a wealth of stock footage from Bernhardt's original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide