Mammy

Jean Stelli was the melodrama past master;his "Voile Bleu " made sensitive people cry a river during the occupation days.

"Mammy" is a lovely film,half comedy,half thriller ,with a subject close of that of William Irish's ( aka Cornell Woolrich's ) "I married a dead man" .

It owes a big deal to its excellent actors foursome : the old ones (Pierre Larquey and Gaby Morlay ,the star of the before-mentioned occupation blockbuster) ,moving and endearing ,and the young ones (Philippe Lemaire and Françoise Arnoul ) ,both good-looking and playing with gusto.Pierre Laroche and Albert Valentin wrote spicy lines ,sometimes verging on black humor :that Valentin could not survive the liberation as a director was a major loss for the French cinema.

The movie begins with fire fighters cars coming to the rescue of two young lovers who have just committed suicide (it's actually a half- suicide ,for the girl turned on the gas unbeknownst to her boyfriend!);the lines do not lack black humor:

-What happened ?

-Nothing!two youngsters who gassed themselves!

-Nothing? Who pays the gas note?

A medical examiner whose wife is blind and could never get over her grandson's behavior who tried to steal from them and then exiled himself to Canada, has an idea: as the two young people are safe in the hospital ,he will pass them off as the grandson and wife:no sooner said than done .

Is the old lady fooled ? Anyway ,the so called newly weds -who do not get one very well and are both jealous- are welcomed in the desirable mansion where she gives them a superb bedroom (and tells them that a bed is not only made for sleeping and dying) .Very good scenes when the granny asks them to play the piano and tries to talk architecture with her grandson .

Unfortunately,when they were least expecting it,the "true" grandson reappears and he is short of the readies.

Even though the ending is too hurried for comfort ,it's a lovely movie,well written and well acted.