Pierre Brasseur Movies

A Simple Case of Money (originally released in 1950 as Millionaires d'un Jour) is set in motion when a greenhorn reporter (Bernard Lajarrige) carelessly prints the wrong winning number in the French national lottery. As the reporter and his boss (Leon Bellieres) defend themselves in court, they are confronted with several people whose lives were profoundly affected by the error. Gradually, these "victims" come to realize that they are far better off as losers than they ever would have been as winners. This is especially true of estranged husband and wife Pierre (Jean Brochard) and Helene Berger (Gaby Morlay), whose tattered marriage is patched together by the experience. Simple Case of Money is most effective as a character study, and least effective as a satire of provincial manners and mores. Coming off best in the large cast is Pierre Laquey as a lovably antisocial centenarian. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pierre Prevert directed this amusing comedy, one of three which he co-wrote with his better-known brother Jacques Prevert. Pop singer Charles Trenet stars as a rich moron who is targeted for murder by a shady enemy (Pierre Brasseur). Brasseur blackmails a criminal (Julien Carette) into killing Trenet, but both escape into the countryside, where they encounter some funny situations and odd locals. Prevert was forced by the film's producer to cast Trenet, and rumors of trouble on the set were plentiful, but none of it appears to have affected the film, which remains a light and engaging romp. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Just before wowing international critics and moviegoers with his adventure romp Fanfan le Tulip, director Christian-Jaque dashed off the lampoonish Barbe-Bleu. Ostensibly the story of the famed wife-killing potentate Bluebeard (Pierre Brasseur), this lighthearted costumer begins as the title character is poised to march down the matrimonial aisle for the eighth time. Barbe-Blue's newest spouse Aline (Cecile Aubry) is kept in line by her husband's claims of murdering her predecessors. But when Aline opens the famous locked door to the equally famous hidden room, both she and the audience are in for quite a surprise. The frivolous nature of Barbe-Bleu is underlined by its pleasing utilization of the French Gezacolor process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Comedian Soupy Sales makes his feature film debut in this silly outing as a janitor cleaning up at Cape Kennedy. He has been specially assigned to make sure that none of the nuclear warheads there get dusty. It's not easy because spies run around spreading dust. One day the janitor stumbles into an experiment and ends up with some very strange abilities: he can fly and women cannot stay away from him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This murder mystery is set in a Parisian cafe and examines the mysterious murder of a famed journalist and extortionist who is killed at his table in the cafe. Though the prime suspects are gathered together( including his wife and her lover, the gun-runner, the creditor, and a playboy) and all of them have motives, none of them did it. So whodunit? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Charles Boyer played his first major Hollywood role (and gets to sing in the bargain!) in the oddball musical romance Caravan. A miscast Loretta Young stars as young Countess Wilms, who is forced to wed by midnight or lose her inheritance. She impulsively chooses gypsy vagabond Latzi (Boyer), offering him a huge sum of money if he'll consent. Swallowing his pride, Latzi agrees to the marriage, but soon the coy Countess falls in love with young Lieutenant Von Tokay (Philips Holmes) -- who is himself in love with Latzi's gypsy sweetheart Tinka (Jean Parker). Director Erik Charrell, famed for his European musical productions (notably Congress Dances), seems uncomfortable adapting to the Hollywood movie-making process. Though evidently intended to be taken seriously, there are times that Caravan comes off like a parody of operettas: one half expects the stars to join in a duet of Cole Porter's spoofish "Wunderbar." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Colette, Claudine stars Blanchette Brunoy as the title character. The 16-year-old heroine finds herself the romantic bone of contention between two of her schoolteachers. Eventually tiring of the tug of war, Claudine finds happiness in the arms of handsome young doctor Dubois (Pierre Brasseur). The "naughtier" aspects of the Colette original were apparently dispensed with long before Claudine went before the cameras. As a result, this was one of the few French films of the early 1940s that could be released in the U.S. with virtually no censorial cuts at all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a stage play by D'Hennequin and Veber, the saucy 1936 sex farce Avez Vous N'Avez Rien a Declarer? was released in the US five years later as Confessions of a Newlywed. The original title translates as Having You Nothing to Declare, a double-entendre referring to the sexual prowess-or lack thereof-of entymologist Pierre Brasseur. Overly preoccupied with his work, Brasseur seems unwilling or unable to satisfy the carnal urges of his young bride Sylvia Battalie. When a week passes without marital consummation, Brasseur asks Battalie's scientist father Raimu for advice. A subsequent visit to a psychiatrist and a nightclub, followed by a tete-a-tete with Brasseur's former lover (Germaine Aussey), seems to straighten things out (if that is the appropriate choice of words), while the connubial progress of the newlyweds is paralleled (and gently mocked) by a pair of insects in Brasseur's laboratory. Confessions of a Newlywed was directed by Leo Joannon, who seems far more at home with this sort of material than he would with Laurel & Hardy in 1951's Atoll K. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

He was known as Anatole Litvak during his Hollywood directorial career, but he was still Anatole Litwak when he helmed the German musical Das Lied Einer Nacht (The Song of Night). Famed Polish tenor Jan Kiepura stars as famed Italian tenor Ferraro. Escaping from his tyrannical manager, Ferraro switches identities with a young tourist (Fritz Schulz) and goes off on an unscheduled Swiss holiday. Still travelling incognito, our hero falls in love with a winsome mountain girl (Magda Schneider). Alas, both his romance -- and his freedom -- are placed in jeopardy when it turns out that the charming young fellow with whom Ferraro traded identities was actually a notorious swindler. Anatole Litvak also directed the English-language version of Das Lied Einer Nacht, Be Mine Tonight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Laurent (Pierre Brasseur) is a newspaper reporter sent to investigate a string of mysterious small-town murders. Although he fails to solve the crime, he uncovers a murder plot concocted by a wife and her lover to kill the woman's husband. The uneven feature careens from comedy to drama with some thrills added and a surprise ending. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

French director Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage) is an unsettling, sometimes poetic horror film. Pierre Brasseur plays a brilliant plastic surgeon, Prof. Genessier, who has vowed to restore the face of his daughter, Christiane (Edith Scob), who was mutilated in an automobile accident. With the help of his assistant (Alida Valli), he kidnaps young women, surgically removes their facial features, and attempts to graft their beauty onto his daughter's hideous countenance. This naturally has an adverse effect on the "donors," some of whom commit suicide rather than go through life faceless. Franju's haunting, muted handling of basic horror material is what lifts Eyes Without a Face out of the ordinary and into the realm of near-classic. When the film failed to draw crowds under its original title, however, the distributors decided to exploit it as a two-bit "scare" flick with the new title The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide