Jean Tissier Movies
French actor Jean Tissier played character and comic roles in scores of films. He got his start on the stage in the early '20s and made his film debut in 1937. Before becoming an actor, he was a journalist. In 1945, he published his autobiography, Sans Maquillage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1945
Also known as The Eleventh Hour Guest, this French romantic drama is a vehicle for up-and-coming Gallic star Jean Tissier. Posing as a detective, hotshot journalist Tessier crashes a weekend party held by a famous atomic scientist. When the party's host turns up dead, everyone is placed under suspicion and subject to interrogation by phony sleuth Tissier. It is our hero's intention to steal the dead man's secret papers and publish them in his newspaper, but before long he does the right thing by collaring the murderer. L'invite de la Onzieme Heure was filmmaker Maurice Cloche's return to directing after several years in the academic world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blanchette Brunoy, Jean Tissier, (more)
- 1945
Son Dernier Role (Her Last Part) stars Gaby Morlay as a famed French stage actress. Checking into a private sanitarium for a rest cure, Morlay makes the acquaintance of handsome doctor Jean Debucourt. Falling in love with her, Debucourt begs Morlay to forsake her career and become his wife. She's sorely tempted, but her lover, author Marcel Dalio, is still waiting in the wings. Based on a play by Louis de Zilahy, Son Dernier Role marked the return to the French cinema of the incomparable Dalio, who'd been hounded out of Europe by the Nazis at the outbreak of WWII. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaby Morlay, Jean Tissier, (more)
- 1945
L'Extravagante Mission (The Queer Assignment) is set on an extremely busy ocean liner. Comic actor Henri Guisol plays a dimwit who mistakenly believes that he's been hired by a prominent banker to impersonate a wealthy marquis. Guisol is convinced that it is his mission to transport important papers to a far-eastern potentate. Alas, he gets mixed up with a bevy of pretty girls and a gang of not-so-pretty crooks, and as an upshot finds himself in possession of a cache of "hot" money. Though billed first, Jean Tissier plays the thankless role of the ship's doctor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martine Carol, Denise Grey, (more)
- 1945
Roger la Honte was the first entry in a two-part production based on the epic novel by Jules Mary. Lucien Coedel plays the title character, a turn-of-the-century industrialist. Falsely accused of murder, the hero is sentenced to a lengthy prison term, which profoundly alters his personality. The second half of the saga, La Revanche de Roger la Honte, details the protagonist efforts to wreak vengeance on those who wronged him. Both Roger la Honte and its sequel were directed in a quasi-Emile Zola fashion by the always interesting Andre Cayatte. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucien Coedel, Paulette Dubost, (more)
- 1942
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
- Starring:
- Suzy Delair, Pierre Fresnay, (more)
- 1942
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
- Starring:
- Raimu, Juliette Faber, (more)
- 1941
Six friends who have won a large sum of money decide to split their fortune and reunite in five years to share all the money they will have earned in the meantime. When the time comes, one of them gets killed on his way back to France. Another gets shot and his body disappears. Police inspector Wens (Pierre Fresnay) has to solve the case before all six succumb to the mysterious killer. Scripted by Henri-Georges Clouzot from the novel by Stanislas Andre Steeman, this mystery suffers from Georges Lacombe's routine direction. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michele Alfa, Pierre Fresnay, (more)
- 1941
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
- Starring:
- Danielle Darrieux, Fernand Ledoux, (more)
- 1940
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
- Starring:
- Micheline Presle, Josephine Baker, (more)
