Sacha Guitry Movies
The son of Parisian stage star Lucien Guitry, Sacha Guitry was born and raised in pre-Czarist Russia. A restless youth, Guitry attended some dozen schools before finally completing his education at 17. That same year, Guitry wrote the first of his 120 plays, most of them vehicles for his own considerable performing skills. In 1915, Guitry wrote, directed and photographed an obscure silent-movie short subject, Ceux de chez Nous; three years later, he acted before the cameras for the first time. Throughout the 1920s, Guitry resisted films, feeling that they could not do full justice to his gift for dialogue and characterization. Though he would act in and write a brace of early talkies, he did not direct his first feature, Bonne chance, until 1935. Guitry was so much the renaissance man that one is tempted to label him the French Orson Welles; in truth, he was more the French Preston Sturges, exhibiting a firmer grasp of dialogue than a flair for visuals. Remaining in Paris during the occupation, Guitry was forbidden by the Nazis to act on stage; ironically, once the Germans were booted from Paris, Guitry spent two months in prison on a collaboration charge. Guitry devoted his last decade to turning out some rather ponderous historical spectacles, few of which exhibited the wit or sophistication of his best plays. Sacha Guitry was married four times; each of his wives was an actress, but only wife #2, Yvonne Printemps, became a star in her own right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1938
Sacha Guitry not only wrote and directed Remontons les Champs-Elysses (Remounting the Champs Elysses), but also plays five roles, including Louis XV and Napoleon III. The film proposes to detail the history of the famous Parisian thoroughfare of the title, beginning with its inception under the aegis of Marie de Medicis. Other famous historical personages depicted herein are Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who allegedly came up with the idea for the first open-air restaurant, and composer Richard Wagner, here seen as a frustrated café musician. At the time of its release, Remontons les Champs-Elysses was compared unfavorably to Guitry's earlier historical pageant Pearls of the Crown. Today it can be appreciated as one of his most entertaining pre-war efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Delubac, Jane Marken [Jeanne], (more)
- 1937
Originally titled Les Perles de Couronne, this Sacha Guitry historical extravaganza stars both Guitry and his wife Jacqueline Delubac. The plotline hinges on four valuable pearls, which pass from hand to hand over a period of several centuries, from the time of Britain's Henry VIII to the present. All of this is offered in flashback form, as a group of modern-day treasure hunters try to locate three of the missing pearls by tracing them back to their previous owners. Guitry shows up as King Francis I, Barras and Napoleon III, in addition to his contemporary persona of Jean Martin; Debulac is seen as Mary Queen of Scots and Empress Josephine. There isn't a scintilla of historical accuracy in the film, nor did Guitry have the slightest intention of including any; his sole purpose was to entertain the audience and serve up a superbly ironic denoument. The supporting cast is a polyglot of French, English and Italian actors, each speaking in his or her own language. The screenplay for Pearls of the Crown was cowritten by Guitry and another immensely talented filmmaker, Christian-Jaque. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Jacqueline Delubac, (more)
- 1936
The first of actor- writer-director Sacha Guitry's four 1936 productions was Nouveau Testament (New Testament), in which he wrote himself the meaty role of Jean Marcelin. Based on Guitry's own stage play, the story concerns a sanctimonious fellow who eventually is victimized by his own hypocrisy. Little effort is made to "cinematize" the property, which is filmed just as it appeared on stage. Audiences didn't seem to mind, and in fact some of them were known to applaud each of Guitry's bon mots as if they were attending a live performance. Nouveau Testament was entertaining enough, but would be eclipsed within a few months by Guitry's best 1936 effort, Story of a Cheat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Jacqueline Delubac, (more)
- 1936
The Story of a Cheat (Le Roman d'un Tricheur) is widely regarded as one of French writer/director Sacha Guitry's best and most personal films. Guitry himself stars as a charismatic cardsharp who survives solely through the auspices of Lady Luck. The story is told almost completely in pantomime; the only voice heard is the narrator's (Guitry, but of course). Among the film's many highlights is the opening sequence, in which the young Guitry misbehaves and is banned from a family picnic--where his parents and siblings all die from eating toadstools. This segues into a side-splitting "black" gag in which an exhausted priest huffs and puffs as he tries to keep pace with the long line of coffins! It has sometimes been suggested that Sacha Guitry was telling his own life story in Story of a Cheat, equating the ins and outs of the film industry with the chicanery of the cardsharp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Pierre Assy, (more)
- 1936
Pasteur was the first of filmmaker Sacha Guitry's "historicals," each of which offered highly personal glimpses of highly public figures. Writer-director Guitry heads the cast as famed bacteriologist Louis Pasteur, who must endure the ridicule and condemnation of his colleagues before his ultimate triumph over the scourge of hydrophobia. Most of the story is told in lengthy monologues, which must have been fascinating to French filmgoers but tend to drag when translated into English. Curiously-especially for a Guitry film -- there is no leading lady, nor are there any other women in the picture. By an amazing coincidence, Pasteur was released in the U.S. just before the premiere of Warner Bros.' The Story of Louis Pasteur. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Jean Perrier, (more)
- 1935
"Renaissance man" filmmaker Sacha Guitry had only two films under his belt when he directed the capricious Bonne Chance (Good Luck). Guitry stars as Claude, an artist who splits a national lottery ticket with the gorgeous Marie (Jacqueline Delubac). Miracle of miracles, the couple wins a million francs, which they decide to lavish on a vacation. Since Marie is engaged to be married, Claude suggests that they pose as brother and sister for propriety's sake. Meanwhile, the girl's fiancé undergoes all sorts of hardships in the army, so he's hardly in a receptive mood when he discovers that Marie and Claude have been enjoying themselves -- and that they've fallen in love with each other. Setting a precedent for all Guitry films to follow, Bonne Chance was heavily censored in the U.S., robbing the film of much of its charm and satiric bite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Delubac, Pauline Carton, (more)
- 1931
Sacha Guitry wrote the play on which Le Blanc et le Noir was based, but it was Hollywood-trained Robert Florey who officially handled the directorial reins. While vacationing in the mountains, child-hating Raimu leaves his wife Suzanne Dantes alone in their hotel room while he dallies with the local maidens. Feeling neglected, Dantes accepts the invitation of her neighbor, a celebrated tenor, for a nocturnal rendezvous. She enters the tenor's darkened room, whereupon she enjoys an evening of purple passion with a man whom she assumes is her host. Nine months later, however, Dantes gives birth to a black child -- her lover of the evening had been the tenor's capricious servant! The flustered Raimu scurries about trying to set things right, and in so doing finds out that he genuinely loves children -- whereupon he declares he'd like to become a daddy himself (one can only imagine that Dantes by this time has developed quite a headache). Though racy and risque, Le Blanc et le Noir remains firmly within the bounds of good taste. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1930
In this British comedy, an early talkie, a philandering wife plays around with her lover while her equally philandering husband plays with his. When she and her lover decide to get physically involved, he takes her to his flat. Unfortunately, he accidentally gives her sleeping powder and she is forced to spend the night. Suddenly her husband appears to get some advice from the fellow. He has no idea that his wife is there. Romantic mayhem ensues until the married couple has a blissful reconciliation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Seymour Hicks, Edna Best, (more)
- 1924
Although this drama was based on the Sacha Guitry play Deburau (which starred Lionel Atwill on Broadway), Warner Bros. changed it around and threw in a bit of Camille for spice. Jean Gaspard Deburau (Monte Blue) is a clown for a Parisian pantomime theater. He falls in love with Marie Duplessis (Marie Prevost) and neglects his wife (Rose Dione). Eventually, Madame Deburau leaves him for his friend, Robillard (Willard Louis). But instead of finding solace with Marie, Deburau discovers that he was only a passing fancy to her. After she leaves him for Armand, he quits the stage. The only light in his life is his son, Charles (Pat Moore). Years pass and Marie finally comes back to him. Her health is gone and Armand has left her. She begs Deburau to return to the stage and, deliriously ill, marries him believing he is Armand. Deburau breaks down during his performance and Marie dies. But he dresses his son, now grown (and played by Pierre Gendron), in his clown outfit, and he successfully carries on in his father's footsteps. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monte Blue, Marie Prevost, (more)
