Les surprises de la radio

This may not be a masterpiece ,but it is a priceless document on those days when the first media was the radio which exerted a considerable influence on the audience ; it was released in May 1940 ,at the time of the flight of the civilians from the north of France during the German invasion;it was forbidden during the Occupation,and by 1944 , it had become old-fashioned .

This is not much of plot: a family from the broad mass of people is invited to spend one day in Paris, for a visit of the radio station with all expenses paid ; they never wrote to them,but a young songwriter ,in love with their daughter ,did it .

The mini-plot does not matter anyway : it's the fly-on-the-wall visit of the studios which remains very interesting today :there were radio-contests ( forerunner of "the voice" or "Brittain has talent " which revealed Susan Boyle ) treasure hunts (the contenders were asked to find ill-assorted items );but the real meat lies in the radio plays : the sketch which features the great Marguerite Moreno is pure delight : selling Paris' monuments such as the Eiffel Tower ,le château de Versailles or Notre-Dame to naive investors is sheer genius ; but to be precise, the crooks fail to send the Trocadero aquarium ,for the person has already bought the Seine from another swindler (unfair competition!);the sketch of the poisoned Saint-Honoré (a cake made with choux pastry and whipped cream ,a delight!)is not bad either and proves that when you're greedy ,you 're paying for your sins.

There are songs by Jean Nohain which are pleasant enough,particularly the last one "je l'ai connue toute petite" (=I knew her when she was a girlie)which smartly unravels the love interest.

To think that nowadays radio has been dethroned by the TV countless channels ,internet et al! But it survives at least in our cars !

A comedy of little cinematographic interest but an interesting document on french radio in the preTV era, how it was made and how important it was for the public. Allows to see radio stars of the time in action, some of them famous screen and stage actors, like Raymond Souplex or Claude Dauphin, and some radio shows such as a very funny and well taken trial parody starring the great actress Marguerite Moreno, prosecuted for dealing shares of the Tour Eiffel and other public monument to naive investors. But the gem of this film is certainly the great humorist Pierre Dac appearing as president of the "Club des Loufoques" (crazies) and organizer of wild treasure hunts in which people had to bring a list of ill-assorted objects to the radio hall. Great to see him at his acme (though he was around 46 at the time) and amazing resemblance with Harpo Marx in some face expressions.