Julien Carette

A comedy with a situation that is built up by a cast of sharply delineated characters, this first-time feature by director Robert Menegoz revolves around a housing development and one stubborn old codger. Armand (Pierre Fresnay) has lived in his home for ages and has no intention of leaving it now, not for the entrepreneurs who are developing a big housing complex and need his land. It seems like nothing will dislodge him as life with its complexities continues day by day. Yet when Armand learns that the big-time developers may be taking unfair advantage of his refusal to move, he starts reconsidering his decision. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this French drama a horse dealer is quite surprised when one of his mares foals a green colt. The verdant critter brings his family fame and fortune. When the mare dies, her picture is hung in a prominent place in the house. It is not long after her death, that the dealer dies, leaving his land to his two sons. Things are well until a jealous neighbor turns them in to the Prussians. When the boy's mother gives herself to a Prussian officer to save her son, she does not realize that her son and his friends are under the bed. The lad swears to have revenge on the traitorous neighbor, and indeed he does. Fifteen years later, the boy seduces his neighbor's daughter. Unfortunately his brother, not knowing of his mother's disgrace, nominates the wicked neighbor for mayor. The vengeful brother is even more enraged when he discovers that the neighbor's family has known about the betrayal all along. To add insult to injury, his daughter has fallen in love with the neighbor's son! Unable to bear it any longer, the brother forces the neighbor's son under his bed and makes him listen to the love-making between the brother and the boy's mother (who willingly sacrifices her honor for him.) ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Le Joueur is French director Claude Autant-Lara's spin on the oft-filmed Dostoyevsky novel The Gambler. Set in 19th century Baden-Baden, the film details the trials and tribulations of several chronic gamblers, foremost among them young Alevei (Gerard Philipe). In love with Pauline (Liselotte Pulver), the daughter of nearly-impoverished general Zagoriensky (Bernard Blier), Alevei tries to save Pauline from penury by instructing her in the ways of the gaming tables. Unfortunately, Alevei is too late to prevent Pauline from destroying herself, both figuratively and literally. The best-known cinemadaptation of the Dostoyevsky original was 1949's The Great Sinner, starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Holiday for Henrietta (originally released in 1952 as La Fete a Henriette) is a Pirandellian comedy about the art of moviemaking. Louis Seigner and Henri Cremieux play a team of screenwriters whose latest project is stuck in a mire of indecision. Should fictional heroine Henriette (Dany Robin) be permitted a happy ending as the romantic Seigner insists, or suffer an unhappy one as "film noir" specialist Cremieux demands? While the screenwriters hash out their contrasting points of view, we see a film-within-a-film, dramatizing the formulating screenplay and its abrupt changes of mood and direction. Finally reaching a compromise, the writers are interrupted by one of the actors in their imaginary movie, who informs them that their "original" plot has already been filmed! When Hollywood got hold of Holiday for Henrietta, it pumped up this modest project into a bloated star vehicle for Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, titled Paris When It Sizzles (63). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Autant-Lara's L'Auberge Rouge (The Red Inn) is black comedy at its very blackest. The scene is a rustic little inn in a remote rural area of France. The inn's proprietors Pierre (Carette) and Marie (Francoise Rosay) industriously support themselves by murdering the various stagecoach passengers who stop over at the inn, and then keep their valuables for themselves. As the story gets under way, a coach full of delightfully eccentric types pulls into the inn's courtyard, ripe for plucking. One of the passengers is a Monk (Fernandel), who learns of the innkeeper's homicidal schemes but is bound by the rules of the Confessional to reveal this information to no one. How can the monk secure the safety of his fellow passengers without betraying his vows? His solution--and the wickedly ironic coda that follows--will linger in the memory long after the final reel of L'Auberge Rouge tumbles over the spools. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Recovering from his disastrous experience with the never-completed La Fleur de L'Age, French filmmaker Marcel Carne proved he hadn't lost his touch with La Marie du Port. Played by Nicole Courcel, the eponymous Marie is the younger sister of Odile (Blanchette Burnoy). Odile in turn is the mistress of been-there-done-that Chatelard (Jean Gabin). Upon meeting Marie, Chatelard's cynicism melts away. Still, he merely toys with the girl's affections--at least until he discovers that Odile is carrying on an affair with Marie's boyfriend. Chatelard stops Marie from committing suicide, and for the first time in his life really means it when he pledges his undying devotion. Like many French films of the era, La Marie du Port was but a shadow of its former self when the American censors got through with it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The French Branquinol is a plotless, shapeless musicomedy revue in the tradition of "Hellzapoppin." The story, such as it is, concerns a theatrical troupe's efforts to stage a charity show. This plot peg is merely an excuse to present the "Branquinol" company at their most zany and uninhibited. The show has more of a satirical edge than one might expect, with certain theatrical cliches given the once-over in uproarious fashion (in this, the film resembles the Forbidden Broadway stage revues of the 1980s and 1990s). Much of the humor may seem merely quaint or strident to American viewers, with the exception of the antics of star comedian Christian Duvaleix. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Messieurs Ludovic serves as a showcase for the considerable thespic talents of Odette Joyeaux. Escaping from her grimy coal-mining hometown, Joyeaux intends to seek her fortune in the big city. Within what seems like minutes, she is romantically entangled with trouble-making Jean Chevrier, idealistic engineer Bernard Blier, and rough-hewn but likeable millionaire Marcel Herrand. The film's most inventive sequence, an homage to the silent dramas of old, occurs at the very beginning. Messieurs Ludovic is based on Ludo, the French stage hit by Pierre Scize. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide