A French farce set in Victorian London where a botanist and his wife get into trouble when they pretend to go missing in order to hide from their sanctimonious cousin – an Anglican bishop who is leading a campaign against such writing.
Acting
Michel Simon's elastic physicality—rubber-limbed genius at peak chaos.
Writing
Jacques Prévert's dialogue zings like a ping-pong match in a hurricane.
Costume
Victorian London via Paris—every hat is a character.
Director
Marcel Carné
Françoise Rosay
Margaret Molyneux
Michel Simon
Irwin Molyneux, alias Félix Chapel
Jean-Pierre Aumont
Billy - le laitier amoureux d'Eva
Louis Jouvet
Archibald Soper, évèque de Bedford
Nadine Vogel
Eva - la secrétaire des Molyneux
Henri Guisol
Buffington - un journaliste alcoolique
Jenny Burnay
Madame Pencil - la cuisinière des Molyneux
Agnès Capri
la chanteuse des rues
Annie Cariel
Elisabeth Soper - la femme de l'évêque
Jeanne Lory
Mrs. McPhearson - la tante d'Irwin qui perd la tête
Madeleine Suffel
Victory - la dame de compagnie de Mrs. McPhearson
Sinoël
Le gardien de prison
René Génin
le balayeur
Marcel Duhamel
le fêtard amoureux des enterrements
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Carné shot this in 18 days to fulfill a contract obligation, yet it became his personal favorite of his pre-war comedies.
The 'immoral literature' crusade parodies real 1880s British censorship campaigns—Carné and Prévert thumbing noses at their own era's moral guardians.
FR
