La sconosciuta n° 13

Jean-Paul PAULIN made interesting works such as " l'esclave blanc" "les filles du Rhône" .He also championed the military spirit ("trois de saint-cyr" "le chemin de l'honneur" ,which may or may not help him direct a movie sponsored by Marechal Petain during the occupation "la nuit merveilleuse " which was a re-telling of the Nativity in Provence .

"L'inconnue n°13 " wanted to renew the hackneyed subject of the injured woman suffering from amnesia ; the journalists who have taken care of her abandoned brat use a reconstruction of the events preceding her accident in a short they make with professional actors .It's a bit far-fetched for the screenplay is nothing but a trite melodrama .Besides ,the trick of the film to help the person 's memory come back was already used in 1912 (!) by Leonce Perret in his "le mystère des roches De Kador "

René Dary is a nice actor,always playing the kind-hearted athletic man and the confirmed bachelor , who lives here with an authoritarian but good-hearted housekeeper. The first part of the movie is the most endearing ,including an offbeat performing fleas act.