Besides being my favorite 20th-century French poet, Jacques Prévert (1900-1977) wrote screenplays for the great noirs of the late-1930s content_231846153860 (Port of Shadows) and Le Jour se lève (Daybreak), both directed by Marcel Carné (1909-1996), for "Les enfants du paradis" (Children of the Paradise, which had an alternate French title "Le boulevard de crime"), and for the two best 1930s French comedies (both of which involve murderers) the black comedy "Le crime de M. Lange," directed by Jean Renoir, and "Drole de Drame" directed by Carné in 1937.

Rather than translate the title as "Droll Drama," the English title quotes an exchange from within the movie: "bizarre bizarre." ("Funny Drama" has also been used.) What is most bizarre is the throwing together of quite a range of acting styles, and that stirring them together works (like a bouillabaisse?). The movie is sent in a very Gallic London of the belle époque (the 1890s), or shortly thereafter.

There is very little British about the movie's London other than a priest (Anglican) with a wife and a society-wide addiction to detective stories and scandalous newspaper accounts of crimes. Even this last is as French as British, IMO.

The movie gets off to an inauspicious beginning with a sort of Revival meeting held by the Bishop of Bedford, Archibald Soper (Louis Jouvet, Le Quai des Orfèvres), delivering a tirade about today's readers of detective stories being tomorrow's murderers. The small audience includes the famous botanist Dr. Irwin Molyneux (Michel Simon, Boudu sauvé des eaux, L'Atlante, Le Quai des Orfèvres) and serial killer William Kramps (Jean-Louis Barrault, "Children of the Paradise"). Kramps considers butchers murderers and has slain a succession of them. He feels that his crimes were set off by reading the detective novels of Felix Chapel, whom the bishop also castigates. "Felix Chapel" is a nom de plume used by Dr. Molyneux to make money to support his wife Margaret (Francoise Rosay, who played the title role in the first Carné/Prévert collaboration, "Jenny") in the style to which she is accustomed, so Dr. Molyneux is made quite nervous by learning that William Kramps wants to kill Felix Chapel. If this sounds complicated, I am considerably simplifying!

The servants finally have enough of the impossible Margaret and leave. Her cousin, the bishop, is coming to lunch, and to keep up appearances, Margaret takes over the cooking and Dr. Molyneux tells the bishop she has gone away. The farcical complications multiply, and the bishop accuses Dr. Molyneux of having murdered Margaret. This becomes a hot news item, and Felix Chapel is commissioned to investigate it.

Margaret and Kramps are staying in the same Chinatown B&B, and Kramps is besotted be her, and gets drunk with Dr. Molyneux and is bathing in the greenhouse pool when Margaret returns to try to convince people that she has not been murdered.

There is also Billy, the milkman who tells spellbinding stories (Jean -Pierre Aumont, Hotel du Nord, Lili), who is in love with the ward of Irwin and Margaret, Eva (Nadine Volga), a compromising dance-hall program, a narcoleptic/alcoholic journalist, the befuddled police, and more. Without inordinate effort, it is possible to keep track of whom is impersonating whom ( I don't recall anyone impersonating someone of another gender).

After a slow start, there is considerable wit and satire laced into the mistaken identity farce, a Gallic screwball comedy (a Brechtian "Arsenic and Old Lace"?). I especially enjoyed the bishop's disguise and the romance between the ardent young serial killer and the bourgeoise wife so devoted to keeping up appearances of gentility (Barrault and Rosay), though Simon and Aumont are also quite funny in their genial ways. The proceedings were shot with unobtrusive camerawork by Eugene Schüfftan (Siegfried, content_231846153860, The Hustler)

The DVD transfer is excellent, all the more so for a movie that is pushing the age of 70.

The unengaging beginning keeps me from rating the movie 5-star, but I have to acknowledge that it provides a foundation for the zaniness that follows.

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This trouvaille francaise is a contribution to Ifif1938's celebration/writeoff.


©2006, Stephen O. Murray



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD