Dany Saval Movies
Former dancer Dany Saval, born Danielle-Nadine Suzanne Salle in Paris, played leads in a number of French films during the '60s and '70s. At one time she was married to distinguished composer Maurice Jarre. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1980
In one of Coluche's earlier films, the late French comedian stars in this standard comedy by Claude Zidi as the inept police inspector, Michel Clement. The senior Clement was a spectacular policeman, and Michel finds it particularly difficult to try and walk in his father's footsteps without tripping. At the moment he is after Roger Morzini (Gerard Depardieu), a dangerous gangster who eventually kidnaps Marie-Anne Prossant (Dominique Lavanant). She is a journalist traveling with Michel as he tries to track down Morzini. Her objective was to get an interview with the gangster, and now she has more than she bargained for. Meanwhile, Michel tries to get his act together and rescue her. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Coluche, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
- 1979
In this comedy, an Italian man in Paris is looking for his wife who has walked out on him. However, before he can get very far in his search, he is coaxed by his boisterous, boozy male friends into taking time out for a carouse. Afterward, he resumes his search, and he and his wife come to an understanding. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Herold, Anne Lonnberg, (more)
- 1977
La Vie Parisienne is a musical which is based on the farcical operetta by Jacques Offenbach which made the can-can famous. The story concerns two rich sons of the upper classes, who revel in the rich nightlife of Paris where they can drink, gamble, womanize and rub shoulders with all classes. Eventually, they tire of this and confine their elaborate womanizing schemes to other aristocrats, with the help of their sympathetic servants. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Alane, Georges Aminel, (more)
- 1977
Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Michel Gauché, a stunt double and trickster who is crazy in love with his former fiancee, work-mate, and fellow stunt performer Jane (Raquel Welch). She, however, is so angry with him for landing her in the hospital due to a badly performed stunt that she breaks off the engagement. Belmondo also plays Bruno Ferrari, the movie star he is doubling for, an effeminate homosexual who lusts after his stuntman. Because Jane is angry with Michel, she falls into the arms of a film producer, and arranges for Michel to re-do the same stunt over and over again endlessly. She also tries to woo Bruno the movie star and discovers that he is not interested in women. Michel tries hard to win her back, sometimes pretending to be the movie star, which confuses her to no end. Just as she is about to marry a dull aristocrat, Belmondo appears in an old gorilla outfit and abducts her from the aisles of the church. Belmondo was famous for doing all his own stunts, and he continued that tradition in this film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raquel Welch, (more)
- 1971
Italian action hero Bud Spencer stars in Maurizio Lucidi's comedy Western The Big and the Bad. While wandering through the West (which looks a lot like Spain), Spencer becomes intimate with the gorgeous Dany Saval -- discovering, all too late, that she is the younger sister of vengeful gunslinger Jack Palance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
In this drama, a highly principled ballet dancer loses her job and is unable to find another. In desperation she takes a job as a burlesque dancer. She becomes quite popular, but she refuses to bare her breasts. Later, after she has a tawdry affair, she faces the grim reality of what she has become and decides to go back to ballet. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Marc Camoletti's popular stage farce Boeing Boeing is watered down and realigned into a Tony Curtis/Jerry Lewis vehicle. Curtis plays an American journalist living in Paris; Lewis is his goonish (but surprisingly restrained) buddy. Partial to stewardesses, Curtis manages to juggle the affections of three luscious flight attendants (Dany Saval, Christiane Schmidtmer, and Suzanna Leigh), whose schedules are such that their visits to Curtis' bachelor pad never overlap. Complications ensue when the Boeing company speeds up its air service, and when Lewis tries to muscle in on Curtis' "racket." The best lines go to Thelma Ritter as Curtis' disapproving housekeeper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, (more)
- 1964
Caroline (Dany Saval) is a young woman who turns her attention to older men in this romantic situation comedy. She has hopes of finding a worldly, mature man to marry, but always seems to pick the wrong men. She is wooed by a millionaire, a pushy salesman, and a pompous physician before learning all three are already married. Caroline decides to find a young man her own age after her failed attempts for happiness with the middle-aged lotharios. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dany Saval, Paul Meurisse, (more)
- 1964
When a young man is urged by his self-centered girlfriend to steal a jewel, he barely pulls off the stunt, hiding it in a guitar as he is being pursued. Before long, however, he has a change of heart and decides to dump the girl and return the gem. Now he must find the right guitar -- which may be in the possession of any of five performers. Franck Fernandel, son of popular French comedian Fernandel, stars with Dany Saval, Berth Grandval and Dominique Boschero -- featuring performances by musical talents Charles Aznavour, Nancy Holloway, Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Vartan and Frank Alamo. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dany Saval, Berthe Grandval, (more)
- 1964
French film star Michele Morgan plays a reclusive Parisian music teacher. She gets her jollies by peeking through her window and witnessing the romantic liaisons of her female neighbor. When the girl is strangled by one of her lovers, the killer (Simon Andreau) hides out in Michele's apartment. The widow is turned on by the dangerous eroticism of the situation, and soon becomes the murderer's lover. A blackmailer (Claud Rich) extracts a great deal of money from the errant Morgan, whereupon it is revealed that the "murder victim" (Dany Saval) is very much alive and part of the extortion scheme. Morgan's vengeance is delicious to behold--and this being a foreign film, she actually gets away with it. Jean-Pierre Ferriere adapted his own novel for the screenplay of Web of Fear, which was originally issued in France as Constance aux Enfers and simultaneously in Spain as Un Balcon Sobre el Infierno. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michèle Morgan, Dany Saval, (more)
- 1963
Ruthless and for some viewers, also vulgar and unpleasant, this uneven comedy by Marcel Carne has a madhouse of characters of dubious morals going through equally questionable antics. Their objectives are primarily self-serving. A former gangster (Paul Meurisse) is interested only in keeping birds -- and his take from his last heist to help him go straight. In the same house is Lucie (Dany Saval) who is supporting her Italian lover by sleeping with the butcher. Meanwhile, the butcher's wife has her own lover -- his assistant. Then there is the female custodian who is helping out an old biddy only with the intentions of getting her hands on the woman's rumored stash of cash. A few other seamy characters wander in and out of cheap bars and brothels as the lives of all these people suddenly come together when the police show up to arrest the ex-gangster. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dany Saval, Paul Meurisse, (more)
- 1962
Moon Pilot is an engaging Disney sci-fi comedy that manages to shoot off a few neat and surprisingly satirical barbs at the hypertense US/Russia "space race" of the era. Tom Tryon plays an astronaut who is ordered to keep his upcoming moon flight a secret, even from his family. While on a plane, Tryon is approached by lovely Dany Saval, who seems to know all about the astronaut's hush-hush mission, and who warns him about possible defects in his spacecraft. Despite the diligence of his FBI guards, Tryon is confronted time and again by Saval, who eventually reveals herself to be a visitor from the planet Beta Lyrae. A friendly alien, Saval merely wants to offer Tryon a special coating formula that will safeguard his rocket. Enchanted by the girl, Tryon plays hookey on his guards to spend more time with her, leaving the FBI, NASA, the CIA and the local constabulary to chase their own tails. When his rocket is launched, Tryon discovers that Saval has stowed away. The two sing a romantic song about Beta Lyrae while mission control (personified by Brian Keith at his most bombastic) expresses confusion over the bizarre transmissions emanating from Tryon's capsule. The release of Moon Pilot was heralded by a "preview" on Disney's Wonderful World of Color TV series, titled "Spy in the Sky." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Keith, Edmond O'Brien, (more)
- 1962
Filmmaker Julien Duvivier returns to the multistoried format of his earlier omnibus films Tales of Manhattan and Flesh and Fantasy with the 1962 French production The Devil and the Ten Commandments. Actually, there are only seven separate episodes in the film, covering such commandments as "Thou Shalt Not Have Any Gods Before Me", "Thou Shalt Not Steal" and "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother." Each of the vignettes seems to owe more to O. Henry or DeMaupassant than the Book of Exodus, with twist endings carrying the day. The all-star cast includes Michel Simon (Episode One), Dany Saval (Episode Two), Charles Aznavour and Lino Ventura (Episode Three), Micheline Presle, Mel Ferrer and Claude Dauphin (Episode Four); Fernandel (Episode Five); Alain Delon and Danielle Darrieux (Episode Six) and Jean-Claude Brialy (Episode Seven). Best of the batch is the fifth episode, wherein horse-faced Fernandel declares that he is God. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Simon, Françoise Arnoul, (more)
- 1962
This routine sex comedy by director Michel Boisrond stars Jean Poiret as Bernard, a young, up-and-coming publisher who has inexplicably fallen in love with Sophie (Dany Saval) a woman working with a 25-watt bulb, when it is turned on at all. Sophie is as well-grounded as daisy fluff and just as serious, yet Bernard goes after her with all the determination of a man blinded by love. After a wild and crazy courtship, the couple marry, but Sophie's personality does not change and she gets him into trouble -- to the point where he almost loses his job. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Serrault, Dany Saval, (more)
- 1962
The seven major sins receive treatment from some of France's greatest directors in this lively portmanteau. "Anger" by Dhomme, chronicles a single horrific day when every bowl of soup in France is found to contain a fly. This causes a devastating nationwide revolt. "Envy" by Molinaro tells the story of a chambermaid whose dream of sleeping with a millionaire comes true. Unfortunately, she goes back to work and finds herself still consumed with jealousy. De Broca's "Gluttony" provides one of the film's most enjoyable episodes as it follows the exploits of a voracious family heading off for a funeral. "Lust" by Demy is set at a Parisian sidewalk cafe and eavesdrops upon the lusty conversation between two young men, one of whom has x-ray eyes that enable him to see through women's clothing. "Laziness" by Godard features real life matinee idol Constantine as a movie star who finds himself too sluggish to respond to the starlet trying so hard to seduce him. "Pride" by Roger Vadim tells the satirical tale of a philandering wife who changes her mind and stays with her husband after learning that her happy home is being threatened by another woman. Finally in Chabrol's "Greed," young men who have pooled their meager resources to buy a prostitute, fight for the chance to be with her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacques Charrier, Marie-José Nat, (more)
- 1960
In this routine crime drama, popular French actor and comic Michel Simon is cast as Pierrot, an elderly gangster who does not fit the stereotype -- he is soft-hearted. After a petty criminal betrays his cohorts by taking off with the loot from a big robbery, he is caught and sent to jail. Now he has served his time, and Pierrot is given the task of retrieving the stolen cash. The tyro criminal tries to use a pretty young woman who has fallen in love with him as a red herring for Pierrot's investigation. Everything backfires though, and Pierrot is left considering what to do with the loot, and with the criminal who does not yet realize he loves his attractive accomplice and could have a good life with her if he opts for walking the straight and narrow. Michel Simon was struggling to get back to work during this period, a few years after some bad dye in make-up had left his face and part of his body paralyzed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Simon, Dany Saval, (more)
- 1959
Originally titled Nathalie, Secret Agent, the Anglo-American Atomic Agent is a sequel to the 1957 film Nathalie (aka Foxiest Girl in Paris). The delectable Martine Carol reprises her role as adventuresome Parisian model Nathalie. This time, Our Heroine's unquenchable curiosity brings her in close contact with an espionage ring. Using all the feminine wiles at her disposal, Nathalie rounds up the spies long before the police have a clue as to what's going on. Both Atomic Agent and its predecessor were based on characters and situations created by novelist Frank Marchal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
