Wealthy businessman André de Saché is far from pleased to discover
that his daughter Pauline has become pregnant by one of his employees, François
Lebrun. To avoid a scandal, André forces Pauline and François
to marry, offering a promotion to the latter as an incentive. The marriage
proves to be a disaster. Within three months, François realises
he can no longer go on living with his moody and egoistical wife, and so
promptly walks out on her. This sends Pauline into a mad rage.
Unable to contain her anger, she rings up her husband and leaves a message
on his answer phone in which she threatens to kill him.
By chance, this vitriolic outburst is overheard by Alexis Target, one of
Pauline's household staff. That very evening, François is killed,
the victim of what seems to be a terrible car accident. This would
appear to be a tidy resolution to a very messy situation. Pauline has
had her revenge and her father is conveniently rid of an embarrassing son-in-law.
But on the day of the funeral, Alexis confides in Pauline that it was he
who murdered her husband, just as she wished. It seems that he had
his own reasons for wanting to see François dead and buried...
In the 1920s French cinema was at its most varied and stylish - witness the achievements of Abel Gance, Marcel L'Herbier, Jean Epstein and Jacques Feyder.
American film comedy had its heyday in the 1920s and '30s, but it remains an important genre and has given American cinema some of its enduring classics.