Veille d'armes

Historian Jean Tulard rightly said that the true star of the movie was neither Victor Francen nor Annabella -who was awarded the Volpi Cup for her performance- but the glorious French navy.All are proud ,from the captain to the seaman recruits.There's informality between the handsome officer (who was Annabella's former suitor before she married Francen who could be her father obviously) and his orderly (played by Roland Toutain,L'Herbier's Rouletabille in "Le Mystere De La Chambre Jaune").

Your disbelief needs to be suspended to swallow such a story:Annabella is locked up (due to a mistake) in her former love's cabin on her husband's warship which sails away !Nonetheless,it is useful to have your wife aboard when you are court-martialled after your ship sank."We normally sank" a young recruit explains.

L'Herbier's fancy for the navy was to continue in "La Porte Du Large" ,the same year with the same actor and he was to sink lower;it was the somber occupation days before the director was in shape again with such works as " La Comédie Du Bonheur" "La Nuit Fantastique" and "L'Honorable Catherine".

This apparently edition of the much filmed stage piece can more than hold its place in competition with thirties A French feature melodramas like Accusé leve-toi, Esquadrille and Double crime sur le ligne Maginot. It makes an intriguing comparison with The Woman from Monte Carlo, the Warners version of a few years earlier which used Walter Huston and Lil Dagoner in the parts played by Francen and Anabella. Surprisingly the French film is easily the better and more polished production though the American film's down beat ending has more conviction.

Marcel l'Herbier was an uneven director but here, as with l'Argent or Perfum de la dame en noir, he was right on top of his material, with a great cast (Pierre Renoir is particularly excellent) and a script which works on ironing out the piece's implausibilities and delivers it in gleaming Jules Kruger lighting, against an authentic naval background which constantly impresses and may well have been the patriotic motive behind the production.

Francen declaring in court "The dead witnesses are the vindication of my honor as a French Naval Officer" deserves a cheer. He's less plausible claiming to be 46 as the love interest of Anabella, glamorous in her evening gown with the lily bodice and other high fashion outfits. L'Herbier and Spaak needed to put in as much effort on their unlikely union as they did on the ship at sea stuff to make this work.

This one is a fascinating piece of cinema history as well as a fun night at the movies.