Natalia

A very minor film in Christian-Jaque's uneven filmography.The last one he made with his then-wife Martine Carol("Nana " and "Madame Du Barry" are the most popular,but even those are not really the director at his best).

Nathalie is sometimes entertaining,Henri Jeanson's lines are sometimes funny but he is not at the top of his game here.The story is confused and it's finally neither a good comedy nor a good thriller.Nathalie ,a mannequin,is involved in a far-fetched detective story which includes theft,rapt,murder,spying,cops and robbers.The story is too repetitive and too derivative to sustain interest .Nathalie fights against a tall villain (Philippe Clay) and she falls in love with a cop (a young Michel Piccoli).

"Nathalie" served to recharge Carol's career who had been endangered after the colossal flop of Max Ophuls' masterpiece "Lola Montès" .Note that all the movies Carol was featured in between "Lola" and "Nathalie" were foreign works such "Around the world in 80 days".Its success was so big that there was a follow-up in 1959:"Nathalie ,Agent Secret" ,by Henri Decoin.