Even when busy staying a step ahead of Nazis in the ‘30s (Germany to Italy to France, eventually Hollywood), director Max Ophüls was unable to stop turning out the occasional masterpiece wherever he was. His French debut, from Colette’s first original film script, if below that mark, still pretty special. Ophüls somewhat held back by leading lady Simone Berriau (one good angle getting her thru a mere 14 films) on this standard story of the nice country girl nearly corrupted by the big bad city; worse, showbiz in the big bad city. Set up as a replacement by a pal who’s going on tour, Simone’s got the looks to stand on stage in an oo-la-la revue and the figure to drop her drape and reveal almost all. But good country gal that she is, she refuses to bare. A rebellious act that causes a sensation! (Don’t worry, you still see plenty that was banned outside France: bare breasts, lesbian tidings, drugs, opium seduction . . . saved in the nick of time by a police raid. (Here, the one thing that needs to be smuggled past the backstage doorman is a breast-feeding baby.) Meantime, Simone shuns showbiz temptation, she’d rather take a stroll with that good-natured milkman, George Rigaud in a breakthru perf. But when circumstantial evidence on drug trafficking at the theater points in her direction, the wages of avoiding sin take their toll. Ophüls seems completely comfortable right from the start. And when the sets are too small for his favored long tracking shots (as in a cramped five-room apartment) he fakes a single-shot using an optical printing trick. Once inside the theater, he can really stretch out and stage edit-free multi-plane action, roaming about while lenser Roger Hubert, nobly working to the limits of capacity, captures it all in one take. The whole modest package basically irresistible.
DOUBLE-BILL: Ophüls most famous backstager was his last film, the great LOLA MONTES/’55 which, alas, was also seriously damaged by an inadequate leading lady.
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