Ma cousine de Varsovie

Banker Gustave Gallet suffers from overwork. His doctor orders him to take a month in the country, long walks, and write an opera. When he arrives on his estate, he suspects his wife, Madeleine Lambert, is having an affair with André Roanne (she is). Up pops the cousin from Warsaw, Elvire Popesco, travelling with her lover and a couple of Great Danes on her way to seduce the King of Spain to release her fiance from prison. Mlle Lambert asks her to seduce Gallet, so she can be alone with Roanne. Gallet asks her to seduce Roanne, so he can compose his opera with an easy mind. She does both.

It's a funny farce, with Mlle Popesco very lively, but more than that, it is also an early screwball comedy. Screwball became prominent in the US when the Production Code shut down sex comedies, and so the movies could deal with such issues only elliptically, as matters of class warfare. In France, however, while they could handle other matters, as in BOUDOU SAUVE DES EAUX, they held onto their sexual component.

My Cousin From Warsaw is a 1931 adaptation of a hit play about a banker who takes the summer off from his job to stay at home, much to the chagrin of his wife and her lover. The ensuing truce is strained when the wife's cousin (or is she the hushand's cousin? the movie is vague on this point) shows up. Sonia, the Polish cousin, is played by Elvire Popesco who played the same role during the play's first run, and who would revive it continuously over the years. And therein lies part of the problem of this movie: all of the men in the movie find her irresistible, while I found her more than a little annoying. Much of the humor of the movie is strained, although there are some amusing touches here and there, particularly when it comes to the musical scenes. This movie was probably a big hit during its time, but it does not hold up particularly well.

Okay it's based on a play ,it's talky, it's derivative ,but when you deal with a monstre sacré such as Elvire Popesco ,there's never a dull moment .Actually a Romanian ,she portrays here a Pole ,the cousin from Warsaw, with her eternal joie de vivre :it takes 15 minutes before she appears and she keeps the viewer waiting.Her problems with French vocabulary would surface again, as she made her way through the thirties ,culminating in Richebé 's "l'habit vert" .(1937)

The play/movie features some good moments:

• the hypocondriac banker the doctor sends to the country , Saumur town ,where his wife lives with her lover (the naive man does not even know he's a cuckold)

-the banker turned composer who writes a horrible opera ,the libretto of which takes place in colonial times India ,: the rehearsal ,with harshing voices and some tunes borrowed from the French folk songs , and involving the amateur household, is riotously funny.

-The conversation between husband,wife,and lover , where they have nothing to talk about but the weather ("the weather is fine" "but it's cold and it 's gonna last");the same scene will return when playful cousin is gone.

WhIch makes this "théâtre de boulevard" almost sound bittersweet as for its ending:the menage à trois resumes his humdrum life ,and the cousin of Warsaw realizes that,although an attractive woman, she's been used as a tool and maybe true love will never come her way.