User reviews

Plot : Simone is a rich kid (check the title) ; she receives an anonymous letter which tells her that she did nothing for her wealth and her luxury .Her papa has only eyes for her and she's spoilt so much she becomes conscious of her privilege .So she decides she would become a working girl in her daddy's factory .Of course ,she falls in love with Pierre Mougins ,an educated worker who naturally does not know she's his boss's daughter. A quarrel with a sly colleague ,Gonfaron ,and he's summoned to the manager' s office ; he' s not fired, because his boss knows he's an asset for the plant ;but,willingly ,he quits the place ,holding her head high.... Gonfaron asks for a strike to make him come back ,but it's a cheap trick from a malicious guy.

Like "l'embuscade " (1941),it's one of the rare French films which shows an union meeting and a rebellion in a factory ;but it's harmless and by no means a plea for a square deal for the underprivileged ; the dice are loaded : the so called dismissed worker is actually an educated person ,who could be an engineer , who spends more time on his drawing table with his protractor ,his set square and his compasses than in the bistro (although Pierre Brasseur was an excellent actor ,he's not credible as a frustrated intellectual,being completely cast against type) .

As for the love interest between him and his great co-star ,Madeleine Robinson , it's pure soap opera .Both actors would be featured in the director's next effort "grisou" (based on play written by the male lead) about the world of the miners ,but then again,don't expect "Germinal ",although the depiction of the milieu is more interesting than that of the factory.