Belle étoile

Jacques De Baroncelli was a prolific director ,active from the silent age (1916)up to post-war years ("Rocambole" 1947)."La Duchesse De Langeais"(1942) is considered his best work.

This one is a comedy.The beginning might remind some users of a famous scene of the all-time classic "it's a wonderful life" -which had still to be made in 1938-: a young man ,weary of life ,wants to throw himself into the river ;but a young girl does it at the very moment he is about to act.He saves her and a "guardian angel" welcomes him ,in the shape of a tramp ,played by the always wonderful Michel Simon.Nothing magic,nothing religious ,like in Capra's beloved work.Simply the two young people decides to live under the stars ,like their mate .The chick (Meg Lemonnier)is a wealthy banker's daughter and the boy (Jean ¨-Pierre Aumont) a poor artist ,but he is handsome whereas all the men the rich dad wanted his heir to marry were graybeards.

Dad gets out of his way to find back his precious darling;but gangsters get wind of the disappearance and demand a ransom.This is a pleasant cops and robbers comedy in which everyone ,the bad guys and the good ones all wind up in a court .

We start with wrangling between Meg (- Lemonnier) and her overbearing father (Saturnin Fabre), and then with a bitter-funny suicide conversation under the bridge between Jean-Pierre (- Aumont) and Léon, a tramp (Michel Simon).

"One problem is," says Jean-Pierre, "I can swim. You never know what your reflexes will be." This ability comes in useful moments later when he sees Meg jump off the bridge,"Two suicides in one night, I'm going to have to find a different spot," says Léon. Jean-Pierre, suicide forgotten, jumps in to save her.

The three team up while Meg, reported missing, evades the police. But reward money is involved and she's up for grabs.

The film is as much as anything (perhaps too much) a vehicle for Michel Simon, a character actor whose roles are barely more far-fetched than his own back-story. With a mouth full of slang and seemingly of marbles, he is entertainingly chaotic.

Meanwhile, JPA is pretty smooth and handsome, Meg Lemonnier jolly and likeable, and the unruly court proceedings keep us amused through to the end.