Jacques Companeez Movies

This biopic chronicles the life and rise to fame of the original waltz king, Johann Strauss. The composer developed his radical new sound while conducting a small band in a restaurant. It was his mistress, a milliner, who created the dance. Soon after its appearance, the waltz became the rage of Vienna. The new-found wealth and fame goes to Strauss' head and he ends up abandoning his wife to tour Europe with his lover. Years pass before he returns to Vienna. There the curmudgeonly Strauss discovers that his son, Johann Jr. has become almost as famous for his waltzes. Family discord ensues, but just before the elder Strauss dies, he hears his son's music and the two finally reconcile. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Eddie Constantine stars as Bob, an American GI at large in Paris. After attending a performance of the fabled Folies-Bergere, Bob becomes convinced that one of the dancers, a feisty little number named Claudia (Zizi Jeanmaire), has stolen his wallet. When he confronts her with this accusation, she reacts in predictably volatile fashion--and before either one of them quite knows what has happened, Bob and Claudia are married! The remaining reels of Folies-Bergere chart the turbulent course of the marriage, as Bob becomes jealous that so many males get to see so much of Claudia on a nightly basis. Despite its come-hither title, Folies-Bergere is about as racy as a seed catalogue. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Les Amants du Tage (The Lovers of Tage) was based on a novel by Joseph Kessel. Daniel Gelin plays a soldier who is acquitted after committing a crime of passion. Relocating to Lisbon, and still feeling remorse over his impulsive killing of his faithless wife, Gelin manages to find love in the form of gorgeous widow Francoise Arnoul. Alas, it turns out that Arnoul has a sordid past of her own, leaving our hero sadder but wiser. Trevor Howard, whose presence in this essentially Gallic entertainment comes as a surprise, plays the relentless police inspector who exposes the seemingly virtuous Arnoul. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

La Rage au Corps (Tempest in the Flesh) stars Francoise Arnoul as Clara, a woman with quite a past and a questionable future. Employed as a lunchroom worker by a Parisian construction company, Clara is rescued from a potentially fatal on-the-job accident by a handsome laborer. She expresses her gratitude sexually, and soon the rest of the workers are consumed by lust and jealousy. A psychiatrist determines that Clara is a nymphomaniac, who can be "cured" only by truly falling in love. Eventually this happens, but not before several torrid affairs (many of which proved too torrid for the American censors). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dany Robin is Naughty Martine in this ooh-la-la French romantic comedy. Set at a fancy girl's boarding school in the French Alps, the film casts Robin as a natural-born fibber, whose tendency to weave tall tales causes ever so much trouble for her parents, her teachers and her classmates. Leaving the confines of the school to become a "woman of the world," the wide-eyed Martine links up with The Baron (Lucien Baroux), a slick con artist. Romance enters Martine's life thanks to the timely arrival of an avalanche -- followed by the appearance of handsome mountain guide Pierre (Henri Vidal). But when Pierre turns out to be a jerk, Martine finds true love in the arms of worldly composer Brevannes (Claude Dauphin). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The unbeatable combination of star Fernandel and director Henri Verneuil strikes again with Le Fruit Defendu (Forbidden Fruit). Fernandel plays a rural doctor, trapped in a dull, uneventful marriage. During a visit to the city, the doctor falls for a young lady (Francoise Arnoul) of very loose morals. Unwilling to relinquish this affair upon returning home, the doc works out a clever scheme whereby he can install the girl in his own home without arousing the suspicions of his wife (Claude Nollier) . How he does this, and how he's finally caught, is handled in a hilarious but scrupulously tasteful fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The sheer star power of Viviane Romance makes the more absurd passages of Crossroads of Passion tolerable. Set during WW II, the story concentrates on the activities of anti-Nazi saboteurs in Lisbon. Flying in the face of Portugal's wartime neutrality, the saboteurs do their best to knock off as many Germans as possible. Romance plays the lover of a murdered Nazi bigwig, and she intends to wreak vengeance on the killers--until the obligatory eighth-reel epiphany. Billed second in Crossroads of Passion is young Valentina Cortese, on the verge of bigger things. The film was originally released in France in 1947 as La Carrefour des Passions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Eddie Roback (Dane Clark), an American army deserter turned criminal, is going to trial in Paris after a ten-month delay when he is sprung on his way to court in a pitched gun battle. A manhunt ensues with the police just a few paces behind, including a nicely staged scene in a department store in which Roback manages to improvise an escape, only to be standing by across the street from his intended destination as his waiting confederates are taken by the police. Investigators try to get ahead of him by reaching out his girlfriend, Denise Vernon (Simone Signoret). Feigning innocence, she makes contact with the wounded Roback, who is turned away by his former associates in his attempts to find shelter and escape. She eventually finds him a hiding place in the studio of Max Salva, a lecherous photographer with a sadistic streak, who may have given Roback up to the police. Denise tries to find him a way out of the country, with money from an American writer, Frank Clinton (Robert Duke), while the police slowly catch on to Roback's whereabouts, drawing the net ever closer. Several battles of wits unfold at once, drawing the viewer in, across intertwining, overlapping plot elements. Even nature raises its hand against Roback as a crippling fog slows his seemingly easy escape to Belgium. All of the players are drawn together for a final confrontation that is every bit as violent as anything seen in American crime films of the period. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Shadow of the Eagle is set during the reign of Russia's Catherine the Great. Dashing Count Orlof (Richard Greene) is dispatched to Venice to kidnap Princess Elizabeth (Valentina Cortesa), a pretender to Catherine's throne. Falling in love with the princess, Orloff casts his lot with Elizabeth's followers. When Catherine (Binnie Barnes) finally gets her clutches on Elizabeth and sentences her to death, Orloff nobly offers to die in her place. All of this sounds suspiciously like The Eagle, a 1925 Rudolph Valentino vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lucille Ball is an American taxi-dancer living in London whose roommate has disappeared. The missing girl had left to answer a job offer in the "personal" column of the Times...just like several other women who've vanished without a trace. Scotland Yard detective George Zucco suggests that Ball answer the personals herself in hopes trapping the killer. She crosses the paths of several eccentrics, including deranged artist Boris Karloff, who for a brief time is the prime suspect. The actual culprit, a sex murderer, is the least likely and most helpful of Ball's contacts -- a fact that she learns almost too late. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally released in 1939, Three Hours went under the titles Le Deseteur and Je t'attendri during its initial European run. In his last French film appearance before WW II, Jean-Pierre Aumont plays WW I soldier Paul Marchand. When his troop train is stalled for repairs in his hometown, Marchand takes advantage of the delay to visit his sweetheart Marie (Corinne Luchaire). Within the next three hours, Marchand discovers that (a) his letters to Marie have been held up by his own spiteful mother and (b) Marie has been driven from her home. With little time to spare, our hero reconciles Marie with his mother, bidding them a fond adieu as he reboards his train. By the time Three Hours was released in the U.S. in 1944, Jean Pierre-Aumont had been signed by MGM, while co-star Corinne Luchaire had been denounced by the Allied occupation troops as a collaborationist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi