André Berthomieu
Bernard Sommet has killed his wife and her lover and he declares that was a crime of passion. Sylvie Foucot, his court-appointed attorney, not only believes him but falls in love with him. But the examinating magistrate is not convinced. For his part, he leans towards premeditation. Whether Sommet premeditated his act or acted out of anger and jealousy will be up to the court to decide.
Manuel, a landowner in Jamaica, arrives in Paris on vacation. There he meets Olivia, a Spanish popular singer and falls in love. Olivia leaves Paris to play in a casino of the Riviera and Manuel follows her there. Maxime lives in Cannes, uncle of Olivia, a trickster who poses as a magician and has great influence on Annie, an eccentric billionaire. At the same time, Simeon, Annie's secretary tries to bribe the magician to influence Annie to accept to marry him, but as Maxime also wants to marry her, Simeon uses the services of a private detective. Manuel receives a telegram asking him to return to Jamaica. So, Annie proposes them a cruise aboard his yacht and invites Olivia.
Jules Duraton is the headmaster of Chatelbourg's high school. He is happily married, has a teenage daughter named Solange, and everything would be for the best of all possible worlds if he and his family were not the namesakes of the protagonists of a famous comic series broadcast every day on Radio Monde "La Famille Duraton". Day after day, the real-life Duratons are made fun of because of their surname and Jules just can't take it any more. That is why he decides to sue the radio station responsible for his misfortune.
Benoit, the head guard of Clouville Prison, prefers to be liked than feared. This basic principle transforms the jail-house into a joyful prison, where all the inmates live amicably together. Among them, various colorful characters : a farmer, a poacher, a distiller, a forger, two pickpockets, a safe-cracker, a gangster and... a good-looking guy who pleases Rosette, Benoit's daughter, well. But too much leniency takes its toll : after Vauclin, the gangster, manages to escape and a complaint is filed against "the deplorable disorder reigning in the joyful prison", Benoit is given early retirement. He will know how to take advantage of his new status live a joyful life with his wife, his daughter and André, his son in law, in fact the nice-looking young prisoner who, in the meantime, has been cleared of all charges.
"Le Tambourin", a Montmartre nightclub, is on its way down. Although it can boast great performances by the alluring Les Bluebell Girls and by Jacques Hélian's lively Big Band the venue does not attract people anymore. Nightclub patrons now prefer the jazz cellars of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Taking this new taste into account, the staff of the "Tambourin" and Jacques Hélian decide to set up their own club, "La Pivoine Ecarlate". They are joined by Pâquerette, a flower vendor and amateur singer, and by Jean-Pierre Francis, an existentialist poet...
The history of the Greek family between 1940 and 1944, which recounts the major events of World War II: the German occupation, the resistance, and the liberation ...
Eusèbe Bonbonneau, a solicitor's clerk, learns one day that a candidate bearing his name runs for election as a member of parliament. In fact Frazier, a crooked businessman, has urged an accomplice to impersonate Eusèbe, in order to obtain, through this straw man, authorizations for the creation of a casino in Sanceau-les-Nains and to make big money out of it. Eusébe decides to go to Paris to investigate. In the capital he meets Mariska, an exuberant actress who encourages him to try to get elected. As a result, thanks to her the true Bonbonneau becomes a member of parliament and the crook's accomplice is arrested. But Frazier is not impressed and, changing tactics, he starts manipulating Eusèbe.
Madame Pomarel becomes the winner of a prize of virtue awarded by the Academy of Moral Sciences which Monsieur des Aubrais is a prominent member. In reality she walks the cabarets, including the Moulin Rouge, where a succession of misunderstandings will occur with a string of characters.
In this British musical, set in Paris, an apparently upstanding husband and father spends his nights fooling around with wild women. His son, wanting to be just like his dad, begins dating a seductive widow--the same widow his father has been seeing. Trouble ensues when the father refuses to let his daughter marry her true love. When the fiancée learns of the father-son shenanigans, he begins blackmailing them into letting him marry the daughter.
Two second-rate, hammy actors, Hector Trignol and Achille Baluchet, come up with a fake murder story to draw attention to themselves. Baluchet is to kill Trignol, who will temporarily disappear then reappear, as if by magic, during the trial. But things don't go according to plan.
Catherine Vidal is a featherbrained wife who imagines that her husband cheats on her. To wash away the alleged stigma, Catherine hires a young man who will pose as her lover. The (double) trouble is that not only is Catherine's husband innocent but that Catherine and her "employee" fall in love for good as well.
Secret de Polichinelle roughly translates as Open Secret. The "secret" in question is an illegitimate child, the offspring of young-and-foolish Henri (Bernard Lacret). The baby is adopted by its grandparents, Monsieur and Madame Jouvenol (Raimu and Francoise Rosay). At first taking charge of the child because it is their duty, the Jouvenols come to love the little nipper as if he were their own son. At this point, the film threatens to drown in a morass of sentiment, but the actors and the director manage to stem the bathos with some first-rate comedy vignettes revolving around the care and feeding of the bouncing baby boy.
Grégoire Vachette is a bashful librarian, forced to listen to the daily boasting of his colleague Courgéan, a great seducer according to what he says. But when, while on holiday, Grégoire meets beautiful Madeleine, the shy young man becomes fired up. Back to his place of work, he can't help communicating his enthusiasm for Madeleine, so much so that he too is taken for a Don Juan. But Madeleine is not for him. Nevertheless, his unexpected change of attitude will have helped him to conquer the heart of Denise, a typist who loved him in secret.
Franck Crighton is a millionaire who is fed up with his hectic life. To have a bit of peace and quiet he has found the winning formula, passing himself off as Guillaume Aribeau, his own secretary. Under the cover of this modest condition Franck can both lead a freewheeling life and find true love.
Wirsoq, who belongs to the type of cosmopolitan financier, gets into his power a young French aristocrat, Arthur de Sorgepois, and insists that the boy's sister should marry him. The girl is in love with a young artist, Pierre Levannier, who secretly returns her affection, but does not declare himself at this critical moment because he is not rich enough to support a wife.
