Coiffeur pour dames (1952)
Directed by Jean Boyer

Film Review

Paul Armont and Marcel Gerbidon's popular stage play Coiffeur pour dames was originally adapted for cinema in 1932 by Réné Guissart with 1930s heartthrob Fernand Gravey in the lead role.  Fernandel may not have Gravey's effortless oily charm but his powers of seduction are just as skilfully directed by Jean Boyer in the 1952 remake, in a role that seems to have been tailor made for the horse-featured comic genius.  This was Boyer's third collaboration with Fernandel (following the popular Pagnol-style rip-off La Bonne étoile, released at the time of the Occupation).

By this time, the ever-popular comic actor had moved on from his country bumpkin simpleton portrayals (best employed by Pagnol in films such as Angèle and La Fille du puisatier) and was now more likely to be cast as the bourgeois misfit.  Like his contemporary Jean Gabin, Fernandel's screen persona showed a marked change at the start of the 1950s, and with Coiffeur pour dames we see him at his most comically odious, as a social climbing hairdresser with delusions of grandeur that are bound to get out of hand.

Boyer was in his element with light comic fare of this kind and, helped by a well-honed script and a more than capable cast, he turns in one of his more entertaining films.  Among the many talented supporting artistes is Jane Sourza - just a few years later, she would become a household name in France when she partnered Raymond Souplex on the hit radio series Sur le banc.  Attracting an impressive audience of just under four million, Coiffeur pour dames showed that Fernandel, now in the third decade of his illustrious screen career, was as popular as ever.  The film provided a model for two subsequent Boyer-Fernandel collaborations - Le Couturier de ces dames (1956) and Le Confident de ces dames (1959).

Film Synopsis

Marius may be a humble sheepshearer in deepest Provence but he has dreams of becoming a ladies' hairdresser of the first rank.  In the hope that one day he will get to realise this great ambition, he swaps his job and becomes a dog groomer.  Not long afterwards, he indulges his coiffure fantasy by taking charge of wigs for a company that sells dolls.  This is how he comes to meet the lovely Aline, an attractive young woman with whom he falls madly in love and marries in haste.  The couple move to Paris, where Marius has the good fortune to open his first hair-dressing salon.

Under his adopted name, Mario, our hero soon becomes the most popular ladies' hairdresser in the neighbourhood.  But even the gratitude of his faithful clientele cannot quench Marius' yearning for ever greater success.  If only he had the money he could achieve so much more!  His wish comes true when, one day, he is summoned to a luxurious apartment to fulfil a very special hairdressing commission.  His client, the wife of an extremely wealthy man, has just what Mario needs to fulfil his wildest ambitions - good will and no end of ready cash.  Seizing the opportunity that Fate has thrown at his feet, Marius embarks on his greatest enterprise yet, not realising that as he does so he risks jeopardising both his marriage and his future happiness...