La perversa ingenua

This is probably the ignored gem of Raymond Bernard's brilliant career. A classic melodrama which begins as a comedy and ends up in pure drama ; often close to Mervyn Le Roy's "Waterloo bridge" or Albert Valentin's " L'entraineuse " , it features a sumptuous cast :the wonderful Danielle Darrieux ,sparkling as champagne , now breezy, now shrewd, now rebellious : in their memorable final scene, she stands up to bourgeois Gabrielle Dorziat (true to form) , shouts her contempt for propriety,money match and gives her back the check for her hypocrit charitable works (we are not far from Autant-Lara's masterpiece "Douce ".)

Although she was born a prole ,the "dragon" -the posh lady who rules the house- is now part of the wealthy world ,and she has embraced their codes and their etiquette without a moment's hesitation ;it matters little if her grandson marries a dumb "yes mom" girl with horrible glasses provided her dowry brings four million to the olive oil business .The ball where Cinderella shines is the apex of the movie :Darrieux sings ,and even her sryle is old-fashioned ,she wins the audience over .

The rest of the cast rises to the occasion :Pierre Larquey, generous but meek ,under his mother's thumb , Louis Salou as a would be classy aristocrat ,complete with monocle.

The ending is not what you expect in this kind of melodrama ; in its own way,it predates Bernard's follow-up "le jugement de Dieu" ,another triumph of the director , in which the lovers' fate will be even more tragic.