Marcel Dalio Movies

Sarati le Terrible is the wealthy and callous absentee landlord (Harry Baur) of a cheap Algiers rooming house near a coal mine. With little money of their own, the local coal-haulers have no choice but to accept Sarati's usurious rental rates. As ruthless at home as he is in business, Sarati refuses to allow his pretty niece (Jacqueline Laurent) to marry the man of her dreams -- not because of avuncular devotion, but because he's got designs on the girl himself! The despotic Sarati gets his comeuppance when he's driven out of business by the increased mechanization of the Algerian coal industry, depleting his tenant pool and driving him to suicide. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frequently cited as both one of the greatest films about war and one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion is an often witty, sometimes poignant, frequently moving examination of the futility of war. During World War I, twoFrench airmen are shot down while taking surveillance photographs in German territory: Capt. de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), a wealthy and aristocratic officer; Lt. Maréchal (Jean Gabin), a burly but intelligent working-class mechanic. The three are brought to a P.O.W. camp, where they encounter and befriend Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), a prosperous Jewish banker, and the commander, Von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), takes an immediate liking to de Boeldieu.They are members of the same social class and believe that the political and intellectual ideals of the Europe they once knew will soon be a thing of the past with the rise to power of the proletariat. The three Frenchmen discover that their fellow prisoners have been digging an escape tunnel, and all of them agree to help -- Maréchal and Rosenthal with enthusiasm, de Boeldieu out of a sense of duty. As he puts it, when on a golf course, one plays golf, and while in a prison camp, one tries to escape -- it's the accepted thing to do. As Von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu become friends, and the rank-and-file soldiers banter as much with the German guards as with each other, the characters seem involved less in a war than in some vast, petty game, albeit one with deadly consequences; they often talk about women and food, while never mentioning political ideology. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Although the title of this French melodrama translates as White Cargo, it has nothing to do with the steamy stage play of the same name. Instead, its source was Chemin di Rio, a novel by Jean Masson. A very young Jean-Pierre Aumont plays a crusading reporter who investigates a white-slavery ring. When Aumont disappears, his sweetheart Kate von Nagy vows to continue his work. Inevitably, Nagy falls into the clutches of demonic pimp Jules Berry and jaded madam Suzy Prim. Dismissed by its director Robert Siodmak in later years as "a dirty movie," Cargaison Blanche seems rather sedate when seen today, save for a brief and tasteful nude bathing scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Entree des Artistes details the lives and loves of several artistically-inclined students at the Paris Conservatory. Wealthy Cecilia (Odette Joyeux) and not-so-wealthy Isabelle (Janine Darcey) vie for the affections of wise-guy Francois (Claude Dauphin). Isabelle finally lands Francois, forcing him to work as a gigolo to support the two of them. Things take a melodramatic turn when Cecilia is murdered, casting suspicion upon the now-chastened Francois. Trying to make sense of all this is Professor Lambert (Louis Jouvet), one of the Conservatory's leading lights, and the Examining Judge (Marcel Dalio). The throbbing musical score by Georges Auric makes Entree des Artistes seem a lot more profound than it really is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Naples au Baiser de Feu (The Kiss of Fire) was one of several films made in France by veteran Italian director Augusto Genina. Tito Rossi plays Mario, a Neapolitan cabaret singer who is tired of his life and hopes to settle down into a domestic existence with Assunta (Mirielle Balin) his boss' daughter. All of this changes when Mario falls in love with Lolita (Vivian Romance), the girlfriend of his roommate Michael (Michel Simon). On the day of his wedding to Assunta, Mario and Lolita skip town together, and for a while it looks as though there's going to be an unhappy ending for somebody. Some welcome comedy relief is provided by Marcel Dalio, whose part is so small that he doesn't even appear on the "official" cast list. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This disturbing melodrama centers upon the relationship between two sisters. One sister is married, but unable to bear children; her husband, who wants kids, is ready to leave her. The other sister is single and pregnant. The baby's father left her. The married sister talks her sister in to giving her the child, so she can save her marriage. The little sister does so, and then falls in love herself and gets engaged. Trouble ensues when the baby's father reappears and blackmails her. Now the sister must decide when and how she is going to tell her fiance the truth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Now often cited as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Règle du jeu/Rules of the Game was not warmly received on its original release in 1939: audiences at its opening engagements in Paris were openly hostile, responding to the film with shouts of derision, and distributors cut the movie from 113 minutes to a mere 80. It was banned as morally perilous during the German occupation and the original negative was destroyed during WWII. It wasn't until 1956 that Renoir was able to restore the film to its original length. In retrospect, this reaction seems both puzzling and understandable; at its heart, Rules of the Game is a very moral film about frequently amoral people. A comedy of manners whose wit only occasionally betrays its more serious intentions, it contrasts the romantic entanglements of rich and poor during a weekend at a country estate. André Jurieu (Roland Toutain), a French aviation hero, has fallen in love with Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), who is married to wealthy aristocrat Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio). Robert, however, has a mistress of his own, whom he invites to a weekend hunting party at his country home, along with André and his friend Octave (played by Jean Renoir himself). Meanwhile, the hired help have their own game of musical beds going on: a poacher is hired to work as a servant at the estate and immediately makes plans to seduce the gamekeeper's wife, while the gamekeeper recognizes him only as the man who's been trying to steal his rabbits. Among the upper classes, infidelity is not merely accepted but expected; codes are breached not by being unfaithful, but by lacking the courtesy to lie about it in public. The weekend ends in a tragedy that suggests that this way of life may soon be coming to an end. Renoir's witty, acidic screenplay makes none of the characters heroes or villains, and his graceful handling of his cast is well served by his visual style. He tells his story with long, uninterrupted takes using deep focus (cinematographer Jean Bachelet proves a worthy collaborator here), following the action with a subtle rhythm that never calls attention to itself. The sharply-cut hunting sequence makes clear that Renoir avoided more complex editing schemes by choice, believing that long takes created a more lifelike rhythm and reduced the manipulations of over-editing. Rules of the Game uses WWI as an allegory for WWII, and its representation of a vanishing way of life soon became all too true for Renoir himself, who, within a year of the film's release, was forced to leave Europe for the United States.. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

If Edward G. Robinson thought he'd get away from tough-guy roles by moving from Warners to MGM, he was sorely mistaken. Robinson plays the editor of a 1920s tabloid newspaper, compelled to accept financial aid from a gangster (Edward Arnold). Defying his "unholy partner," Robinson adopts an editorial stance in direct opposition to the gangster's activities. The crook is less upset by this than by the fact that Robinson's star reporter (William T. Orr) is romantically interested in the crook's girlfriend (Marsha Hunt). When Robinson tries to expose the gangster's insurance racket, the young reporter is kidnapped. Robinson kills the crook, then covers his tracks in noble fashion by participating in a suicidal airplane test flight. Unholy Partners manages to keep its multitude of plot threads in order, resulting in one of Edward G. Robinson's most solid vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One Night in Lisbon is one of several pre-1942 films which used the screwball-comedy form to comment upon the raging war in Europe. While transporting American warplanes to the beleagured RAF, Texas flyboy Dwight Houston (Fred MacMurray) is caught in a London air raid. Scurrying to a shelter, Dwight meets icy, well-bred Briton Leonora Pettycote (Madeleine Carroll), with whom he falls in love--a feeling that is far from mutual at first. Eventually responding to Dwight's charms, Leonora agrees to join him for a night's revelries (as soon as the Nazi bombers head home, that is), but their budding relationship is complicated by the unexpected presence of Dwight's ex-wife Gerry Houston (Patricia Morrison and Leonora's erstwhile sweetheart, Cmdr. Peter Walmsley (John Loder). Escaping their respective suitors, Dwight and Leonara end up in neutral Lisbon, only to land in the middle of a Nazi spy ring. Although poor Leonora gets the worst of it at the hands of the villains, she is game enough to realize that she wants to spend the rest of her life with the footloose Dwight. The film is filled to overflowing with familiar character faces, including Britishers Edmund Gwenn and Dame May Whitty, French émigré Marcel Dalio and even perennial Laurel and Hardy foil James Finlayson. One Night in Lisbon was based on There's Always Juliet, a pre-WW2 play by John Van Druten. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There are moments in Columbia's Flight Lieutenant that approach "high camp"; indeed, one is hard pressed to remember if any cliché is left unturned. Pat O'Brien plays air pilot Sam O'Doyle, who is professionally disgraced when he survives a crash in which his co-pilot is killed. He tries to get work elsewhere, but finds that he can't shake the onus of his apparent dereliction of duty (Even the newspapers conspire against him, trumpeting his humilitation in front-page headlines!) Finally O'Doyle escapes to the tropics, leaving his young son in the care of his best friend Sanford (Jonathan Hale). As the years pass, young Danny Doyle (Glenn Ford), an aviator himself, grows to despise his father's memory-especially since he has married Susie Thompson (Evelyn Ankers), the daughter of Sam's unfortunate co-pilot. When WW2 breaks out, Danny is promoted to flight lieutenant, whereupon his father enlists as an Army Air Corps private under Danny's command. The elder Doyle finally redeems himself when he knocks Danny out and takes over a suicidal test-pilot assignment (That darn fool kid-er, darn fool grownup!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This French Underground melodrama stars George Sanders as a seemingly apolitical Parisian doctor who is actually a resistance leader. Sanders' nurse (Brenda Marshall) is likewise a French patriot--less so the nurse's husband (Philip Dorn), who has become disillusioned after two years in a POW camp. The husband changes his mind and joins the Resistance, though he and several other freedom fighters lose their lives to German bullets. Worth noting in Paris After Dark is the fact that several of the personnel involved were actual French refugees, including director Leonide Moguy and husband-and-wife supporting actors Marcel Dalio and Madeleine LeBeau. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide