A huge international hit in the 30s, I suspect this seems a bit too labored and artificial now to quite captivate a modern audience the way, say, Children of Paradise still does. But the fan of 30s cinema (Marx Brothers and Carole Lombard division) will find lots to like in the collision of disparate styles-- screwball motivations (Barrault plays a besotted madman worthy of Mischa Auer) and Feydeau-farce complications (I won't spoil the delightful way in which Simon, having absconded from home and suspected of a nonexistent murder, is immediately forced to return to his house in disguise); a supposed proper Englishness (the mania for detective tales and the orderly reality beneath them) seen through thoroughly French eyes (which means that mad Gallic passion roils just below the surface). And if you know French cinema, the cast is its own reward-- stern Jouvet, as an increasingly irrational and surreal-acting clergyman, versus shambling Simon (reportedly they hated each other, in any case the clash of styles is perfect), Rosay (of Carnival in Flanders), the handsome Aumont and, most surprisingly, Barrault in an energetically black- comic role 180 degrees from his winsome mime in Children of Paradise.

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Home Vision

Aspect Ratio:

Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1

 

Edition Details:
• Black & White
• New digital transfer


 

Cast overview, first billed only:

Michel Simon .... Irwin Molyneux, alias Felix Chapel
Françoise Rosay .... Margaret Molyneux
Louis Jouvet .... Archibald Soper, Bishop of Bedford
Jean-Louis Barrault .... William Kramps
Nadine Vogel .... Eva
Jean-Pierre Aumont .... Billy, the milk-man
Pierre Alcover .... Det. Insp. Bray
Henri Guisol .... Buffington, the reporter
Annie Carriel .... Elisabeth Soper
Jeanne Lory .... Mrs. McPhearson