This is one of those rare movies in which you can see a young Suzanne Flon.The heroine called Suzanne is thus played by an actress named Suzanne ;Flon was essentially a (very talented) stage actress and cinema did never really do her justice.
This is a story written by Pierre Very ,actually a portmanteau film for there are three little stories and an epilogue in which all the characters return a la "dead of night" ,but "Suzanne" is not in the same league as that masterpiece .
Suzanne is a lawyer ,she's just got her degree and she is married to a cop (played by Feuillade's star child René Dary)."You throw'em into jail and I come to their rescue!".In the movie,you won't see her do her job though.Think Miss Marple and you have an idea of what the movie is.
Segment one:" the wealthy beggar" A rich antique dealer who wants to be a writer becomes a beggar at night to give his depictions a "real life" feel.His wife (who could be his daughter) has a lover and he is murdered .Not worthy of Pierre Very.
Segment two :"the red balloons" A grumpy nasty selfish millionaire lives in a small village and has his throat cut of with a razor:is it murder or suicide?This segment is the best ,in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie's "Tuesday club murders" .Very smart.
Segment three: " the White Lady" ;it is interesting for it shows,one more time ,how people from Bretagne were thought of by the Parisians: naive mentally-retarded guys,superstitious persons ,incapable of "Cartesian " reasoning ;this is not an improvement on "Tout Va Très Bien Madame La Marquise" (the movie) or on Becassine comics for that matter.If the White Lady appears,run for cover,folks ,for punishment is in the air.Fortunately for them ,Parisians have intellect going for them!Very ,who was very good at creating an eerie mysterious atmosphere ("Le Pays Sans Etoiles" "Les Disparus De Saint Agil" ),does not succeed in making his story interesting and Yves Ciampi's directing does not help.
There's an epilogue which involves the main characters of the three tales,and the moral could be " a woman's place is at home ,caring for her hubby".
