
Richard Pottier
Directing
Biography
Richard Pottier (6 June 1906, in Graz – 2 November 1994, in Le Plessis-Bouchard) was an Austrian-born French film director.He was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as Ernst Deutsch. Pottier, born in 1906 in Budapest, began his career as Sternberg's assistant. His debut as a director coincided with the coming of the talkies. He broached many genres along his long career: plenty of comedies ("Si J'Etais Le Patron" ), adventures ("Les Secrets De La Mer rouge"), sci -fi ("Le Monde Tremblera", with its machine which could predict the date of your death), detective films ("Picpus" ) musicals ("Violettes Imperiales"), melodramas ("Defense D'Aimer" ), you name it. He was a solid craftsman and certainly did not deserve the critics' contempt. Without him, "Some like it hot" would never have happened for Billy Wilder used the German remake of "fanfare D'Amour" as a model. He was the first to talk about euthanasia in "Meurtres" (1950) at a time when the subject was thoroughly taboo; his buoyant "Caroline Chérie" predated the "Angélique Marquise Des Anges" saga by ten years. His rural thriller "La Ferme Aux Loups" renewed the story of twins. His career neatly declined after 1950,and his last works were cheap sword and sandals flicks such as "David Et Goliath" (starring Orson Welles) and "L'Enlèvement Des Sabines" (starring Roger Moore). He retired in the mid-sixties. He was to live thirty more years.(d.1994)
Known For

When the Philistines attack, the Israelites are hopeless against the fierce giant Goliath and don't know what to do. King Saul takes the advice of the prophets and sends an adolescent shepherd, David, into battle to conquer the oversized Philistine. David is victorious and becomes the King of Israel.
David and Goliath

Picpus is a street and a subway stop where a number of murders have been committed. Maigret tries to find the killer.
Picpus

France, July 1782. During her birthday, the beautiful young Marchioness Caroline meets the attractive soldier Gaston. It's love at first sight but Gaston does not wish to make a commitment because a military career waits for him. Caroline marries then a politician but the French Revolution bursts and Caroline has to run away to escape the guillotine. By running away she meets Gaston again who decides to help her.
Dear Caroline

The classic story from the early days of Rome where there are no women. Romulus, the founder of Rome, finds women to be wives from Sabina where there are a lot of women. The Sabine men, of course, attack Rome to get their wives and daughters back.
Romulus and the Sabines

A man assists his gravely ill wife to die and wants to face justice for this, but his brothers try everything to keep the family's name clean.
Three Sinners

A young woman has a perilous affair with a General from the opposing side during the Revolutionary war.
The Rebels of Lomanach

Maigret is called to the high-class Hotel Majestic to investigate a body. The wife of a wealthy American has been killed - but to Maigret's surprise she has a gun in her purse. He begins to follow up the handful of clues that could explain her secret life and her demise.
Majestic Hotel Cellars

Paul Dorgères, a wealthy industrialist, has been mysteriously murdered. The investigation is entrusted to the experienced Chief Inspector Bonnardel and his young rookie assistant, Inspector Richard. Suspicion turns to his mistress Catherine Villard, with whom he had just broken up on the night of the crime. She is soon arrested and charged. However, Inspector Richard discovers a button at the scene of the crime which could help him to trace the trail and confound the culprit(s).
The Case Against X

In Lebanon, industrialist Hennequin, director of a French oil company, entrusts engineers Jean Domèvre, a Frenchman, and Mokhrir, a Lebanese, with the prospecting of an isolated region granted to him by Countess Athelstane Orloff. Their search remains fruitless until Mokhir reports the discovery of a uranium deposit, but disappears before Jean can identify the location. He goes to the Countess for help in finding Mokhir and surprises her when, due to financial difficulties, she is negotiating her concession with the Englishman Hobson, director of a rival company. Attracted by Jean, the Countess nevertheless gives him her preference and they set off together in search of Mokhir.
The Lebanese Mission

Lovers since childhood, Sylvain and Angelina do not see their lives separated from each other. However, Sylvain is sent to war and the young woman desperately awaits his return. Years pass and the latter is forced by her father to marry Jean-Marie, a man she does not love. One day, while Angelica and her family are climbing in the Alps, an avalanche sweeps them away. Safe and sound, she comes face to face with her childhood sweetheart, Sylvain.
Barry

Vincent Etchebar is spotted by the impresario Cartoni who gives him the opportunity to break into Paris. But nothing will go as planned.
The Singer from Mexico

In this sci-fi film, a scientist invents a prescient machine that can tell people when they will die. Oddly enough, the people do not want to know and therefore begin to riot…
The World Will Shake

An Italo-French biopic about one of the most famous women of Belle Époque, Spanish-born dancer and actress, star of Folies-Bèrgere: Carolina Otero.
The Beautiful Otero

In spite of his failures as a peddler, Casimir guaranteed his fiance that this time the vacuum cleaners will work for good. But he's still unsuccessful until he go to the appartment of Paul-Andre, a painter who was engaged by correspondence to a rich south-American woman. That's exactly when she arrive armed with a gun infuriated after she had received a rupture letter from the man she had never seen. She mistakenly took Casimir as her painter lover. Casimir his ready to flee until he learned she owned many hotels, a thousand rooms in fact. "A thousand rooms, a thousand vacuum cleaners", he suddenly think.
Three Feet in a Bed

Violeta, an Andalusian gypsy, foretells a lady she will become empress. The lady is Eugenia de Montijo, and when she marries emperor Luis Napoleón of France she takes the young girl with her. The empress'cousin readily makes her his focus of attention, then she discovers a criminal attempt against the empress.
Imperial Violets

Two unemployed musicians dress up as women to be hired by an all-female orchestra called "Tulips from Holland"; they fall in love with two gorgeous musicians.
Fanfare of Love

A beautician inherits a racing stable and a fortune of 160 million, which she can only collect in 5 years, if she has maintained and cared for the horses, including Prince III, preferred by her uncle who made her his heir. The thoroughbred wins a race during which the rival jockey is killed. The police suspect murder.
Dernier tiercé

The Paladines write crime novels together. In a cinema, they happen to see a report on the consequences of a shipwreck in which Lieutenant Dupuis tells about the death of an old man in the lifeboat carrying the survivors. Husband and wife agree that this could be the starting point of a new story and go and see Dupuis to get more details about the drama. When they come to his hotel Dupuis is dead with a bullet in his head. Police characterizes the death as suicide but Paladine has found a train ticket in the dead man's pocket. With his wife he takes the train to the specified destination, somewhere in the provinces...
Eight Men in a Castle

Music seller and singer on occasion, Jacques Gardel learns from master Jérôme Quilleboeuf that he inherits oil fields located in Big Bend in Texas.
Serenade of Texas

The novelist Suzanne Delmont creates a character, "The Uncatcable Frédéric", a sort of Arsène Lupin. A mysterious stranger launches a press campaign accusing him of having a harmful influence on young people...