Gaby Basset
Bum Archimède wants to spend the winter in prison, but to get there proves not to be that easy.
Louis Bertain is the owner of a Paris garage which is the front for a robbery gang. He and his accomplices are careful to keep up a civic veneer by day, indulging in criminal activities only when "the red light is on" at night. This status quo is upset when one of the gang members becomes convinced that Louis' younger brother is a police informer.
Elisabeth is persuaded to have killed her noisy upstairs neighbor, scientist Charles Magne. To save her, Mr. Matheu, Elisabeth's father, accuses himself while Pierrot, Elisabeth's fiancé gets rid of the body in order to save father and daughter. For his part, a gangster also believes he has killed the scientist but he gets shot down by a taxidermist, who runs for life. The girl, her daddy and her boyfriend also run away. But Magne is not dead. A bum is mistaken for him and a police inspector makes everyone believe that he is the one who shot the gangster. At the end of this crazy chain of events all the protagonists are reunited at the station house and everybody dances to express their relief.
In Les Halles, in the heart of Paris, the restaurateur André Chatelin (Jean Gabin), leads an uneventful life until the arrival from Marseille of Catherine (Danièle Delorme), the daughter of his ex-wife Gabrielle (Lucienne Bogaert). She tells him her mother is dead and that she is without resources. Chatelin welcomes her under his roof - then marries her. Gérard (Gérard Blain), a young student that Chatelin looks upon as a son, becomes Catherine's lover, and she sets him at odds with Chatelin. She asks him to kill the restaurateur. He refuses. She kills him. Having discovered that Gabrielle is still alive, declined and drug addicted, Chatelin realises the darkness of Catherine's soul who has always lied to him.
A girl surviving on public welfare, fall into a life of prostitution.
After a spending the night with his girlfriend Alice (Jeanne Moreau), trucker Jean (Jean Gabin) encounters a dead body on the road home. He reports the incident to the police who suspect that Jean was responsible for the death and his new truck is impounded. To make matters worse, the man's widow accuses Jean of having robbed her husband of a large amount of money that he was carrying. And then there's that gang of sinister crooks who also are harassing him. Jean is a victim of circumstance and forces beyond his control are closing in on him. But Alice gives him a measure of comfort and stability. With her as his emotional base, he manages to rouse his trucker friends to turn the tables against the gangsters who are pursuing him.
Gentleman gangster Max and his partner, Riton, pull off their last, most successful heist and find themselves comfortable enough to retire in the style they enjoy. However, Max confides the details of the theft to his younger mistress, Josey -- who has secretly taken up with ambitious young rival gangster Angelo. Angelo then has Riton kidnapped and demands the stash of gold as ransom, which threatens Max's dreams of the perfect retirement.
Arriving in Paris, Madeleine Marsan rents a room in a guesthouse where she makes the acquaintance of Pierre Ruffin, a respectable municipal librarian. Through Pierre, Madeleine finds work as a schoolteacher and soon realises that she is in love with him. Then she discovers that Pierre is in truth the head of a band of crooks. Caught by the police after a failed robbery, Pierre manages to escape. With Madeleine’s help, he goes on the run.
A respected gangster, Justin, finds himself in a deadly feud with his rival, the unscrupulous Esposito. The latter plans to steal a cargo of opium bound for China and to have Justin killed.
The first version of Billy Wilder's "Some Like it Hot" about a couple of cross-dressing musicians.
