All his life,general Cambronne denied having done it : to have shouted "M......!" (Sh........!)to the English soldiers who asked him to surrender.
"Le Mot De Cambronne" is a short play in verse dedicated to Edmond Rostand who hinted at the famous word in his "Aiglon" .After the cast and credits written in the past historic and a long letter to Rostand full of subjunctive imperfects and pluperfects ,the 30 min short features only four characters
-the general (Guitry himself) ;he married an English (!) woman and he doesn't want the dirty word to be uttered in his home .Some of his lines ,when he tells his wife he lived under five systems of government,predate the "Diable Boiteux" Guitry would write after his tribulations at the end of WW2.
-his wife (the wonderful Marguerite Moreno ,with a delightful English accent and only a sentence in her first language) who is a laughing stock for the posh ladies such as the Préfète who never misses an opportunity to laugh at the famous word her husband is famous for having said.The wife is sick and tired of these small mysteries and she wants to know the word!
-the Préfète :a gossip woman (the marvelous mischievous Pauline Carton) who knows the word like everybody does in France ,but whose lips are sealed ,except when she makes a fool of her so called friend!
-the servant : she's played by Jacqueline Delubac then Mrs Sacha Guitry ,and she has only one word to say ! This could be only this one,for ,as the play was written in verse ,there's only one word in French which rhymes with "Perde" (=lose)
Only 30 minutes ,but the text is a virtuoso display of puns,wit,culture and even suspense (when will the word be uttered?)
