Courrier Sud

Courrier Sud as a portrait of air mail pilots is not exactly Only Angels Have Wings, and it suffers from way too much time spent on the romantic subplot involving the often stiff Pierre Richard Willm with Jany Holt.But as an effort by the underrated craftsman Pierre Billon it has some extraordinary moments and features interestingly: a story by beloved Saint Exupery, with contributions from the then unknown Robert Bresson, and one of those rich casts of 1930s era French actors who are now sadly forgotten. The standout job is from Marguerite Pierry as maiden aunt Sophie, who abets Holt's attempt to escape the husband and run away.Pierry has a role that might have gone in a Hollywood film to someone like Helen Broderick or Agnes Moorhead and she leaves a haunting impression. (In real life Pierry had wanted to be a schoolteacher not an actress) In a smaller role, as the nasty proprietress of the boarding house Pierry puts Holt into, none other than the wife of Darius Milhaud. Colleen Kennedy Karpat who wrote a useful 2013 scholarly study on the French exoticist/colonialist genre this film belongs to, does not seem to have been aware of the obscure Courrier Sud.

Based on a novel by Saint-Exupéry .The famous writer,whose "Le Petit Prince" is French all time best seller ,with 100 million copies,speaks at the beginning of the movie:he praises the aviation pioneers ,without whom the flights would not be so comfortable in 1937 ,date of the movie.

Pierre Billon's directing is so-so and does not really rise to the occasion.The scenes in the desert,notably ,do not compare favorably with those of Duvivier' s "La Bandera " ;note that the bad rebel Arabs,like in the latter work ,are hardly seen and are called "Les Salopards" (=the sons-of-a-b......) There are two plots: French airmail service between France and Africa and a love affair between of their heroes (Pierre Richard -Wilm,handsome but bland)and an ambassador 's wife(Jany Holt).This man ,obviously older than her ,is so busy (it's altogether understandable on his part ,in 1937!)that he deserts her and treats her like a little girl,which she is anyway.Charles Vanel effortlessly steals the show from the two lovers.

The scenes in the guest-house,with the bad greedy landlady becomes ridiculous.

The documentary side is more interesting than the romantic interest.

Pierre Richard-Willm is a pilot on the North African mail run. On leave he returns home to discover his cousin Jany Holt is upset with her marriage to diplomat Charles Vanel. He's selling off her family home because he can't afford the establishment. So she runs off with Richard-Willm. Her family is all about her duty and life is real, except for an elderly aunt who helps her escape.... to a worse fate. Meanwhile, Richard-Willm is flying off to Dakar, and further when a pilot goes missing.

The attraction for me was Vanel, but for most, it's because it's from a novel (and co-written script) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in a "men must work and women must weep" plot. There's lots of nice location shooting in which looks like North Africa, with the shadow of the planes on the sand dunes, and Richard-Willm is very dashing and high-minded, when he isn't stealing other men's wives... and Vanel turns out not to be such a heel in this one. Over all it's pretty good, if more a boy's adventure sort of movie than anything deep.

This film is an adaptation of a novel by the aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is an ode to the pioneers of aviation who are risking risk their lives to help humanity with mail services all over the world. The hero here is contacted by a childhood friend who has an unhappy marriage with a domineering and cold husband. She leaves her husband with her pilot, but he is called back for a dangerous mission: a colleague had an accident in the middle of the African desert infested by armed Bedouin rebels.

The script bathes in an overall atmosphere of paternalism and colonialism. The desert images are fantastic.

Some well-known names in the credits : Robert Bresson, Robert Lefebvre, Françoise Giroud, Jacques Ibert.

Excellent interpretation by Charles Vanel and others.

Pierre Billon is an underestimated director (see his film "Vautrin").