A small town gentleman learns that his prim and proper wife was once a showgirl, and that, even worse, he had enjoyed a one night stand with her in the Orient.
Acting
Michel Simon's magnificent physical comedy and wounded dignity.
Writing
Witty farce that skewers respectable hypocrisy with surgical precision.
Director
Jean Boyer
Michel Simon
Josserand
Raimu
Loulou Barbentane
Marie Bell
Caroline
Suzet Maïs
Fernande Josserand
Gilbert Gil
Antoine
Junie Astor
Colette Ventadour
Magdeleine Bérubet
Mme Testavin
Betty Daussmond
Angèle
Georges Lannes
Lieberkrantz
Marcel Maupi
Colleville
Gisèle Préville
Nathalie
Claire Gérard
une invitée
Simone Gauthier
Claire Gérard
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on a Marcel Achard play, this captures 1930s French cinema's obsession with bourgeois respectability masking libertine behavior—the 'pink comedy' tradition.
Raimu's casting as Loulou was deliberate counterprogramming; the legendary actor usually played working-class heroes, making his turn as cynical observer of upper-class fools quietly subversive.
FR
