Micheline Presle

Micheline Presle

After a convent education, Paris-born Micheline Presle entered films as an ingénue in 1938. She blossomed into a sleek, seductive leading lady in the mid-'40s, thanks in great part to her sensuous performance in Claude Autant-Lara's Devil in the Flesh (1947) and ethereal portrayal of the "back from the dead" heroine in Les Jeux Sont Faits (1947). Presle was brought to Hollywood in 1950 by Darryl F. Zanuck, who sought to deflect problems with the pronunciation of her last name by changing the spelling from "Presle" to "Prelle." After a handful of inconsequential American film appearances, the last and least of which was the disastrous Republic costumer The Adventures of Captain Fabian (1951), she returned to Europe. Micheline Presle continued going strong with choice character parts in continental films into the 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide