Amants et voleurs (1935)
Directed by Raymond Bernard

Film Review

Raymond Bernard is not a film director you would readily associate with comedies, least of all romantic comedies.  In the silent era, he made his mark with two distinguished period pieces Le Miracle des loups (1924) and Le Joueur d'échecs (1927), which he followed with his grimly realistic war film Les Croix de bois (1931) and epic Victor Hugo adaptation Les Misérables (1934).  The one comedy he is known for is Tartarin de Tarascon (1934), scripted by Marcel Pagnol and starring Raimu.  Amants et voleurs, the film he made directly after this, is a more conventional kind of 1930s comedy, adapted from the 1905 play of the same title written by the director's illustrious father, Tristan Bernard.

The play Amants et voleurs was already dated by the time Bernard chose to adapt it for cinema, although the implausible plot might have provided the basis for a good American screwball comedy and it was the kind of thing that appealed to French audiences of the 1930s.  Today, the film's main attraction is its star-studded cast, which includes not only some of the biggest French actors of the period, but also some well-regarded character actors.  Pierre Blanchar (the doomed hero of Les Croix de bois) is somewhat miscast as the juvenile lead, a part that would sit more comfortably on the shoulders of a less intense actor - Pierre Brasseur, Jean-Pierre Aumont or even Pierre Fresnay would have been a far better choice.  In one scene, Blanchar is requested to smile, and you can hear the muscles straining at the seams as he does so.  One suspects Bernard is having a joke at his lead actor's expense...

In this formulaic comedy, Michel Simon gives most entertainment value, hamming up things disgracefully (but enjoyably) as the bourgeois oldster, a close relation of the pathetic individual he played for Jean Renoir in La Chienne (1931).  Florelle is stunning as the female lead, and, unlike her wooden co-star, shows a natural flair for the rom-com genre, brightening up the later scenes in the film no end.  Arletty, still waiting for Marcel Carné to make her a massive star, is wasted in a minor supporting role, but she still manages to steal her scene.  She would later star alongside Simon in two far more memorable comedies, Fric-Frac (1939) and  Circonstances attenuantes (1939).

Raymond Aimos and Paul Demange, two instantly likeable characters actors who bring a touch of class to any French film, show up (alas) too briefly, their presence helping to make this something of a monument to wasted talent.  Amants et voleurs is a minor work in Raymond Bernard's impressive filmography, marred not just by a pedestrian plot but also by its overuse of rear projection (one sequence using it, ill advisably, for comic effect).  Blanchar's stiffness and dearth of comic ability weighs the whole thing down, and without Michel Simon's doddering histrionics to lighten the mood it would be a grimly lacklustre piece.

Film Synopsis

Fate has been unkind to Claude Brezin.  When he loses his entire fortune, the unfortunate young man must obtain a job to survive, but try as he might his efforts to find work end in dismal failure.   He is at the end of his tether when his path crosses that of Monsieur Doizeau, who has his own worries.  Fearing a scandal, the wealthy Doizeau is desperate to recover a number of indiscrete letters he wrote to a popular music hall artiste, Irma Lurette.  With no other prospect of making money, Claude reluctantly accepts Doizeau's offer of a large recompense in return for inveigling his way into Irma's apartment and stealing her letters.  All goes well until the young man falls in love with the alluring starlet...