Writing
Michel Simon gives one of the most memorable performances in screen history as Boudu, a Parisian tramp who takes a suicidal plunge into the Seine and is rescued by a well-to-do bookseller, Edouard Lestingois. The Lestingois family decides to take in the irrepressible bum, and he shows his gratitude by shaking the household to its foundations. With Boudu Saved from Drowning, legendary director Jean Renoir takes advantage of a host of Parisian locations and the anarchic charms of his lead actor to create an effervescent satire of the bourgeoisie.
Handsome and rich Spanish gentleman abandons his wife and riches for his love of a young girl of poor stock who taunts and degrades him.
The rightful heir to the throne of Babylon leads a slave revolt against an evil ruler.
The daughter of a seamstress, Jeanne BĂ©cu could hardly imagine she would later become one of the most influential women of the Kingdom of France...
The young Suzy is a nightclub hostess in a cabaret in which Frehel is the star. Because one night she gets propositions from a rich widower who would like to have her as his girlfriend, Suzy wishes to leave this place, where she has no future, for a better one. Abandoned by her protector, a young hoodlum named Robert, she gets the occasion to get away from it. She decides to go on vacation on the Riviera and stay at the Chateau des Cedres, the former residence of a noble family that has been transformed into a bourgeois guest house by the baroness Saint-Leu. Shy and elegant, in her modest suit, Suzy stays there under the name of Suzanne Michelet and soon makes new friends among the young people of very wealthy families.
Au p'tit Zouave, a café, sees a colorful clientele from working-class Paris. An assassin will shake up the daily life of the regulars.
One of Alexandre Dumas's most popular adventure novels is "The Count of Monte-Cristo". What is little known is that the famous writer made up neither its plot nor its characters. Dumas actually heard the true story of a man named François Picault during a stay at a private mansion and only adapted it into the novel everybody knows . Picault (who in the book would become Edmond Dantès) was about to marry the beautiful Marguerite (Mercédès in the novel) when he was denounced by three jealous friends who falsely accused him of being a spy for England. Picault was placed under a form of house arrest. In his prison, he made friends with an Italian abbot. When the man died, he left his fortune to Picault whom he had begun to treat as a son. On his release, Picault, who had become wealthy, was able to pursue his ruthless revenge on the three men who were responsible for his misfortune.
Danielle Darrieux stars in this French thriller as a singer having an affair with her accompanist. When her husband dies in an automobile accident, the two lovers suspect each other of having murdered him. Soon after, they receive 45 rpm records with the dead man’s voice, threatening to come back.
In this classic French satire, Louis, a convict, escapes from prison and takes on legitimate work, making his way up in the business world. Eventually becoming the head of a successful factory, Louis opts to modernize his company with mechanical innovations. But when his friend Émile finally leaves jail years later and reunites with Louis, the past catches up with them. The two, worried about being apprehended by police, long to flee the confines of industry.
Madame de Montespan, the Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XIV, has been in disgrace since the King set eyes on a younger beauty, Marie-Angélique Scorailles. Having had enough of the situation, the rejected mistress decides to visit La Voisin, a woman known as a fortune teller, a doctor, a midwife and who is also said to arrange black masses and sell poisons. Some time later Marie-Angélique, now Duchess of Fontanges, dies mysteriously aged only twenty...
Peggy Martin, daughter of a wealthy American businessman, persuades her father to buy a haunted Scottish castle from Donald Glourie. As the castle is dismantled and transported to Florida, its ghost tags along. Donald and Peggy fall in love, but the restless apparition proves to unwelcome, and they must find a way to appease the kilt-wearing spirit.
A story, set in Rome of 44 A.D., concerning the amorous and political intrigues of the evil Empress Messalina, the wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius, and her eventual hounding to death.
In this sword and sandal fantasy, a gladiator named Poseidon must battle a quartet of combatants in ancient Rome. If he wins, the son of Hercules will have his life and anything else he wants. Sure enough, he wins and asks that the life of a Christian girl be spared. But the girl refuses her liberty until all of her fellow believers are also released.
Irène is the unhappy wife of a wealthy publisher, Jacques Voisin-Larive, who cares about her no more than a beautiful piece of furniture. Her meeting with Étienne, a young cabinetmaker with whom she falls in love, turns her dismal existence upside down. Not wanting to reveal her condition to her lover, she pretends to be a modest maid, employed by the Voisin-Larive. At the end of a weekend spent with her lover, Irène discovers that she is pregnant. The fragile balance of their existence is suddenly broken. Taking the initiative, she reveals her affair to Jacques and tells him about her desire to divorce. But her husband has no intention of giving her back her freedom...
Italian sword & sandal thrills as the son of Hercules is pitted against an evil king and his wretched followers.
Alice, a widowed Frenchwoman, goes on a vacation to Italy. Upon her return, she relates the particulars of her holiday. Within a 24-hour time frame, Alice gets on the wrong boat, winds up in Switzerland where she whiles away the hours at a casino, meets a handsome young German army deserter named Thomas, spends the night with her new acquaintance, pays his sizeable gambling debts, and helps him elude the authorities...
A light, comedy romance about a cab driver named Jean and a flower girl named Anna that takes place in Paris during the Bastille day celebration of July 14th.
In Paris during the Second Empire, Count Muffat, despite his prejudices against loose women, falls madly in love with Nana, a young kept woman and star of the Théâtre des Variétés. This all-consuming passion will lead nowhere and, like Nana's other lovers, will lead him to ruin and crime... An adaptation of Émile Zola's novel Nana.
Outwardly, Monsieur Victor would appear to be the model citizen. A respectable Toulon shopkeeper, he has a devoted wife and is courteous and considerate to all who know him. However, beneath this veneer of respectability hides a notorious receiver of stolen goods, who trades with hardened criminals. Victor manages to keep up his double life without any difficulty until the fateful day when one of his partners in crime threatens to expose him. Fearing a scandal, Victor kills the crook in a moment of panic, using a shoemaker's tool. Naturally, the murder is blamed on a local shoemaker, who is sentenced to ten years' hard labour. Seven years later, the former shoemaker reappears in Toulon, having escaped from prison. The first person to recognise him is Monsieur Victor...
While fighting in Britain, Roman forces commanded by Caligula capture the noble warrior, Glaucus. Seeing in him gladiator material, Caligula takes Glaucus back to Rome along with other hostages including Glaucus's girlfriend, Ena. A man seeking to restore the Roman Republic then assassinates Caligula after which Claudius is proclaimed emperor. Messalina -- Claudius's beautiful but evil wife -- then maneuvers to replace Claudius with her lover, Silio. She forces Glaucus to help her in this quest by threatening to harm the enslaved Ena. Written by dinky-4 of Minneapolis
