Acting
Belphégor deals with a series of mysterious appearances by a masked-and-robed figure in the Louvre; a security guard is murdered, and a later police trap is foiled when the phantom—“Belphégor” (the name of a legendary demon)—uses knock-out gas. Journalist Jacques Bellegarde of “Le Petit Parisien” (the real-life newspaper which published the original story in serial installments), investigates, and eventually discovers famous detective Chantecoq and his vivacious daughter Colette are also on the case.
Guitry reprises his role as Pasteur which he played successfully at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1919.
In 1914, during the First World War, the rich chatelaine de Boissière, with a sulphurous past, took in Jean le Barois, a young soldier lost in territory occupied by the Germans, who was none other than the son of the man she loved, then ruined. The young man, after having despised her, falls madly in love with the woman who pushed his father to suicide.
While still behind bars, a crook manages several schemes including one that almost gets his penniless young lawyer into trouble.The crook's mistress, married to a rich man, then becomes attracted to the lawyer.
As its title indicates, La Mort du Cygne is set in the special world of the ballet. Young dance student Rose Souris idolizes her teacher-role-model Mademoiselle Beaupré, and will do anything to help Mademoiselle Beaupré further herself. Thus, when rival ballerina Nathalie Karine lands a much-coveted role, Rose arranges an accident causing Nathalie to break her leg. The girl comes to regret her rash behavior when it appears as though Nathalie will never dance again.
After finding and adopting a child, a man gets a job at an all-girls school which doesn't allow families. Once the girls find the baby, they become his forty little mothers. At the same time, the child's true mother searches for him.
At the English court, at the beginning of the 18th century, Lady Henriett fell in love with a farmer, Lionel, who, following a mistake, believes her to be his servant. By learning his quality, Lionel refuses to receive the one he already considered his fiancée. The queen herself will appease this lover's quarrel and, moreover, will free the peasants of his kingdom.
The film depicts events between the Fashoda crisis in 1898 and the 1904 signing of the Entente Cordiale creating an alliance between Britain and France and ending their historic rivalry. It was based on the book King Edward VII and His Times by André Maurois. It was made with an eye to its propaganda value, following the Munich Agreement of September 1938 and in anticipation of the outbreak of a Second World War which would test the bonds between Britain and France in a conflict with Nazi Germany.
The history of one of France's most famous streets is retold, featuring multiple performances from Guitry himself.
A British officer poses as a traitor in order to infiltrate a team of terrorists who are sabotaging ships, while a seductive cabaret dancer is working for the mysterious genius who runs the enemy spy ring.
Julie and Désirée Clary are courted by the brothers Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte. Joseph marries Julie and Napoleon is affianced to Désirée. When Napoleon breaks the engagement and marries Joséphine de Beauharnais, Désirée becomes involved with General Bernadotte.
Biography of Lucien Guitry, stage comedian, by his son, movie director, and a poetic reflection on the passionate love of both men for their chosen art forms.
Three friends, Fred, singer, Claude, painter and André, extra, live in the same studio and share everything, even their girlfriend. Fred falls in love with a young girl but leaves her when he learns that she is rich. The two friends will try to fix this problem.
A banker who lost everything in the stock market is on the verge of committing suicide when the Devil appears to him and offers to give him a fortune every day on one condition: he must do evil things with the money! Will the banker keep his end of the deal...
In a palace on the Côte d'Azur, a whole fauna evolves: a colonel who cheats on his wife, the colonel's daughter who flirts with Fred, Fred's friend, Emmanuel, who is in love with Marion, and Marion who kills himself. believing that Emmanuel does not forgive him for having, out of idleness, yielded to Fred one day.
An officer is tried for self-inflicted injury.He is thrown out of the Foreign Legion .
A gypsy has cast a spell on Livette, the fiancee of Renaud, the proud guardian nicknamed, King of the Camargue. Renaud wants to punish the witch who frightened Livette. But then, meeting the gypsy, he is taken under the strange spell that emanates from her. She arranges to meet him in an isolated hut in the middle of the muddy ponds. Livette, warned of her betrothed betrayal, goes to the place where she is to meet the infidel. But Renaud changed the stakes that line the only fordable passage. And Livette dies, even more from Renaud's betrayal.
An old man about to die gives all his fortune to a young beggar he meets in an Arabian town. He takes him to his house (now the poor man's property) and he strongly advises him not to open one of the doors, the seventh door. "I could throw the key into the sea" says the young lad" No use, you'd dive to get it back". The young man is curious and he cannot resist temptation: he opens the forbidden door. A strange world is waiting for him where a girl, Leila, will be his guide .
A young lord who has abandoned his pregnant mistress hires his son, twenty years later, as secretary. He will try to fix his mistake.
Charming Mimi-Trottin is in love with typographer Louis Chausson, nicknamed Godasse. She meets Doudou, actually a Vicomte, estranged with his parents who are rich automobile manufacturers. Godasse abandons Mimi because of his professional ambitions and Doudou rescues her from a suicide. After making peace with his parents, the young man has Mimi hired as a typist at the factory. After winning a race with one of his father's car, he soon wins the heart and the hand of Mimi.