La belle que voilà

Michele Morgan and Henri Vidal ,then wife and husband ,were the ideal couple for the young girls of the era .The movie they made together were good at best ("Fabiola" ),rarely exceptional ("L'Etrange Madame X"),generally mediocre (this one,"Pourquoi Viens -Tu Si Tard?).

The title comes from a nursery rhyme sung when girls dance in a ring (the first picture) ;it is used ,later in the movie,as a ballet score (the best moment ,with a beautiful scenery and Morgan graceful as ever).

Jean-Paul LE Chanois is now universally demeaned in his country ;some of his works are unfairly overlooked :"L'Ecole Buissonnière" "Sans Laisser D'Adresse" and even " Agence Matrimoniale" and "Le Cas Du Dr Laurent" ;but some others are indefensible .

"La Belle Que Voila" is a spate of clichés and ,unlike Douglas Sirk or Jean Gremillon who directed "L'Etrange Madame X",Le Chanois is incapable of transcending the permanent features of melodrama :two people in love want to become artists :a great sculptor and a ballerina ;but life tears them apart ,he winds up in jail for years and she's wounded (he tried to kill her when he found her with another man who had made her drink )and if she does not take care of herself ,her heart may.....

Like in any melodrama,when a woman is unlucky in love ,she 's lucky at cards ,that is to say at dance :she soon becomes Prima ballerina,ousting her rivals after sleeping with men who help her with her career .And meanwhile his one and only love is still in the nick....

Morgan is a brunette and is beautiful;Vidal is as handsome as ever;but the impact is lacking.

It was the most inadequate follow-up to his brilliant " L'Ecole Buissonnière " ;but Le Chanois turned around from this dud and his next effort " Sans laisser D'Adresse " , a populist work ,his forte , was a return to form.