L'ordonnance

Guy de Maupassant's short story is short indeed: four pages.It essentially consists of a letter a dead wife sends to her military husband.She committed suicide because the orderly officer had discovered her affair with another officer and blackmailed her (she had to pay in kind ).

The movie is a long flashback based on the letter.There's just one problem: four pages of text,it is not enough ;it takes genius to make a great 80 minutes movie out of such a thin plot.Viktor Tourjansky's effort is full of filler,and to flesh out the story ,he created from start to finish another orderly officer ,a "good " one.Hence Fernandel's part.He and Paulette Dubost as the cook are the only actors who enliven a bit a dull film.When Fernandel is demobilized,the new orderly appears...

Actually a remake of a silent movie by the same director.