La bonne étoile

This is a subject which strongly recalls Marcel Pagnol's works such as the Cesar/Marius/Fanny trilogy and mainly "Angèle" ;the only difference is that the girl is,although seduced and abandoned ,not pregnant ,perhaps because of the occupation days and the Vichy moral.The Part of the priest -not present in atheist Pagnol's works-is important :not only he comforts poor Auguste ,but he also shows the straight and narrow to Mireille : "you were born to marry and to raise children" ;this moral blames the rich buck whose parents are nothing but parvenus (outstarts) and who has a wild time in the dangerous city of Marseille with hussies.

Fernandel is touching as a nice fisherman who grows a rare flower and "does know what it is to love " ,should we believe the girl who is as selfish as she is naive and mindless.When she breaks the flowerpot ,the impatient girl hardly apologizes.

A song (about the Lucky star of the title) is featured,not performed by Fernandel.

The films of French Occupation cinema are re-surfacing and this Fernandel vehicle proves to be likable enough. It has two qualities, the comic's toothy comedy character and the waterfront village atmosphere filmed attractively on location.

Nice to see Janine D'A. from FRENCH WITHOUT TEARS among others, again too.

Most curious element is the the priest consulted as unquestioned oracle. This had the local audience hissing at the show I saw. His prominence is intriguing in a production line comedy film made under German war time control.