Jean Tissier Movies

Also known as La Grande Refrain, Symphonie D'Amour was filmed in 1936 but wasn't released in America until a decade later. Fernand Gravet plays Panard, a young composer who has yet to receive his big break. His actress girlfriend (Jacqueline Francell) inveigles a wealthy marquis to finance a production of Panard's latest operetta. To improve the box-office take, a rumor is spread that Panard has committed suicide. When the show becomes a hit, our hero is forced to go into hiding lest he be exposed as a fraud. Finally his conscience gets the better of him, and all is rosy. Though the direction of Symphonie D'Amour is credited to Robert Siodmak, he was actually the supervising director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Crossroads is the English title for Carrefour, directed in France by German-born Kurt (later Curtis) Bernhardt. Suzy Prin and Jules Berry star in this master blend of amnesia, romance and deceit. A respected French diplomat is blackmailed by criminals, who insist that the diplomat, who'd once suffered a loss of memory, had been a crook in his previous "life". When Kurt Bernhardt emigrated to the US, he was signed by Warner Bros., thus had no opportunity to work on MGM's remake of Carrefour (again titled Crossroads) starring William Powell, Hedy Lamarr and Basil Rathbone. The story would be adapted a third time for the 1950 British melodrama Dead Man's Shoes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally Tourbillon de Paris, this film details the misadventures of a group of French military-school students. The plot is merely an excuse to showcase the considerable talents of bandleader Ray Ventura and his orchestra, most of whom play students so as to justify their presence in the film. After getting in and out of one scrape after another, the students redeem themselves by landing a contract as nightclub performers. Corpulent comic actor Charpin provides acting relief as a pompous headmaster, who deals as best as he can with his unruly charges. The best way to sum up Whirlwind of Paris is to imagine an American film in which Benny Goodman and his orchestra play West Point cadets. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The French Way (Fausse Alert) stars American expatriate musical star Josephine Baker as a Parisian cabaret singer. The plot is your standard "star-crossed lovers" melange, distinguished by the conspicuous lack of clothing on the female characters. The coy ingenue is played by 18-year-old Micheline Presle, several years removed from her international stardom vis-a-vis Devil in the Flesh. Because Josephine Baker was black, and because she performed in the nude for the most part, The French Way didn't make it to American shores until 1952. Even then, Ms. Baker's climactic feather dance was entirely excised, though the film spends its last two reels building up to it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a lonely orphan answers a singles ad in a paper and then slips out of the orphanage to meet the man whose letters she has come to love. However, the college professor she meets has actually been ghost writing for the real lonely heart. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Director Henri-Georges Clouzot's maiden feature-length effort was the intricate mystery thriller The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (L'Assassin habite au 21). Businesslike homicide detective Wens (Pierre Fresnay) goes on the prowl for a methodical mass murderer, who seemingly manages to be everywhere at once. Following a confusing trail of clues to a seedy boarding house, Wens disguises himself as a clergyman in order to gain the confidence of the boarders, hoping that one of them will make "that fatal slip." All of the boarders are eventually taken into custody, only to be released when the murders continue unabated. Wens cracks the case when he figures out that the seemingly contradictory clues are the by-product of a bizarre conspiracy. Filmed in 1942 under wartime conditions, The Murderer Lives at Number 21 was finally released in the U.S. five years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The great French character Raimu stars in Strangers in the House. He is cast as Loursat, the father of teenager Nicole (Juliette Faber). When Nicole's petty-thief boyfriend (Andre Reybas) is accused of murder, Loursat, a once-great attorney who has taken to drink, cleans up his act and defends the lad in court. Filmed in 1942, Strangers in the House attained an American release in 1949, three years after Raimu's death. Based on a novel by Georges Simenon, the film was remade in 1967 as Cop-Out, with James Mason and in 1992 as L'Inconnu dans la Maison with Jean-Paul Belmondo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide