À la Belle frégate

In Valentin's filmography ,"A la Belle Fregate " came just before his two greatest achievements "Marie-Martine" and "La Vie de PLaisir".It is not nearly as good as those.

It's a sailors' story;they often sail away and when they return ,the first thing they do is searching girls.One of them -Jean- is shy and he does not know how to go with women.One day ,he meets Yvonne and falls in love with her.But ,alas ,she prefers his good friend René.Another suitor ,Pierre ,owns the "A la Belle Fregate" cafe where Yvonne works as a waitress.

There are two or three colorful scenes:the fair where they used to buy gingerbread pigs on which they wrote their love's name with sugar,now a thing of the past; the quarrel in the streets between respectable well-meaning and "liberal" middle age people;Madam(e )Juliette ,pretending she is helping Yvonne (cause her motto would be "help your fellow man" !) and trying to make her an "entraineuse" for less-than -handsome guests.

Albert Valentin's touch can hardly be felt here,except maybe in the conclusion: the virtuous generous guy is a loser whereas the selfish bon vivant takes it all.

My father and his family saw a lot of films with René Dary, "120 Rue de la gare" being their favorite. He excelled in sailors, and in here, he's again dynamic and charming, well surrounded by truculent Julien Carette and Aimos (as the mute). There are some funny boozing scenes, of course with sailors what else, and a light sentimental suspense. And a threatening bartender and his "blend of the boss" (mélange du patron). Very entertaining comedy and direction by Albert Valentin is competent, but his 2 best movies are the 2 following, "Marie Martine" and the vitriolic "la Vie de plaisir".

A couple of sailors on shore leave fall for the same girl (Michèle Alfa). One of the men (René Lefèvre) is sweet and honest but awkward; the other (René Dary) is an abusive, philandering drunk but he's got a better looking mug. So guess which one the girl chooses. A further complication is that her father, who owns the bar where she works, is an ex-boxer with a short temper and a swift left hook.

There's not much of real life in this movie. The characters and situations feel like they've been lifted out of other, better films - about ports and sailors and their girls, and the bars and seedy hotels they end up in. There is some flat comedy involving the bar owner's favourite tipple (which he drinks ritualistically before knocking out anyone who annoys him) and Julien Carette and Raymond Aimos as sailors who switch personalities when they get drunk.

Lefèvre and Alfa are appealing if lightweight leads and have some pleasant early scenes together. Unfortunately, director Albert Valentin isn't up to the challenge of depicting the breakdown of this affair. The rejection of Lefèvre's character seems too arbitrary and cruel, and his rival too unsympathetic to make us feel comfortable with the outcome. Though the final scene has the rhythm of a happy ending, it's hard to imagine any of these characters living happily ever after.