Acting
Two friends, Tricoche and Cacolet, are partners in a detective agency. Chance has it that Cacolet is hired by Van der Pouf, a rich banker who wants him to watch over his wife Bernardine while the latter, on her part, seeks the services of Thicoche.
On the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisian HĂ´tel du Nord, a nearly fatal gunshot separates a dejected young couple. But, amid a sad but beautiful panorama of lively characters, love has the final say. Can life be a fairy tale?
Jules Vachon, a pharmacist, has two sons, Gabriel, a steady-minded young man dedicated to his job in the pharmacy, and Gaston, a good for nothing whose only talent is to seduce rich women and take money from their pockets. But it is Gaston who is hailed as a great man when he returns to his native village thanks to his deep pockets.
Nicolas, the owner of a small café, has had enough of his current life. Business-wise, customers are more and more scarce. As for the love side, the situation is not any better as Jacqueline, his charming wife, not content to be spendthrift, might well be cheating on him.. To escape this harrowing reality Nicolas decides to simulate his suicide and disappears. Lucky or unlucky draw? Both in fact as, on the one hand, Nicolas finds serenity but, on the other he wins a huge sum of money in a lottery. How will he manage to get the money now?
In a lost village in Lapland, GĂ©rard comes to the aid of his friend Anders, in conflict with his father, a rich owner of gold mines.
A little town erupts in turmoil about the construction of a public urinal. The army is sent in to restore order, but the military add to the confusion by getting involved with the local women.
A wealthy industrialist, Roger de Vetheuil, married, feels assured of aging in peace. Then appears a blackmailer who accuses him of being a usurper, actually called Jean Pelletier, a mobster well known to police. Vetheuil, judging himself slandered, refuses to listen to his tormentor and goes to the police. The man speaks. The scandal is public soon ...
A colonel decided to be represented at the regiment festival of a tragedy in verse by the poem written by his sister.
Denise Moret joins her husband, Pierre, in Mongolia where he works as a civil engineer. One night she loose a lot of money on the roulette and therefore is forced to borrow money from Prince Lee-Lang. The Prince immediately begins to flirt and make advances towards Denise. Advances she rejects.
Elsa Lundenstein is accused of having murdered her lover. The jury discusses the case vividly. All members are somehow prejudiced because of personal life experience and subsequently each member reads something different into the presented facts.
A famous convict Jacques Collin, alias Trompe la mort, or abbot Carlos Herrera, also called Vautrin, escapes from prison. Chance makes him meet Lucien de Rubempré, an impetuous and eternal lover who, when he is dismissed, collapses. Moved by this fragility, he takes him under his wing, and will do everything possible to ensure that his creature reaches happiness, even if it means imagining the worst shenanigans and other scams, with the help of a band of clever villains.
A woman in Paris hires a taxi driver to locate her ex-lover, father to her newborn child, who left her without leaving an address.
For 15 years after Waterloo, a baron refuses to accept the defeat. He reluctantly marries one of 2 Bourbon sisters but lands up dueling with the wife's former lover. Finally he gets a chance to prove himself again in battle.
Beautiful and adored by the public, the great actress Florence once faulted with Remi, a disreputable individual. A little girl was born who lives in the countryside. Dorcier, the director, would like to marry Florence and wonders about her private life and her past existence. A jealous rival unleashes slander.
In a little town with a renowned college a female student is found after she was hogtied and strangled to death. Inspector Marco is assigned to catch the murderer.
A struggling artist buys a talisman that gives him love, fame and wealth. The talisman is a severed left hand, and it works perfectly, in fact, magically. But of course there is nothing free in this world, and after one year the devil comes and asks for his due.
After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
Captain Benoît manages to take possession of the plans of a new German airplane. The German counter-espionage assigns one of their agents, beautiful Erna Fiedler, to seduce Benoît and to eliminate him. But the two spies fall in love.
A famous writer takes in a young amnesiac who, thanks to his care, remembers having tried to kill her unfaithful lover. He will know how to console her and share with her a new happiness.
Due to financial problems, the boarding-school of Saint-Loup is on the verge of closing its doors. In desperation, Jacquelin, the headmaster, has the idea to invite former students to a fund-raising reunion. Among the alumni, three men whose common point is to have been in love at the time with the headmaster's niece. One is a banker, the second a priest and the last one a globetrotter. All of a sudden, the peace of the assembly is disturbed: Jacquelin's niece has just been murdered.
