L'Aventure commence demain (1948)
Directed by Richard Pottier

Film Review

In the 1940s and '50s,  Richard Pottier was one of France's most prolific filmmakers, and he certainly had a knack of delivering what the French cinema-going public wanted, usually in the form of lowbrow but entertaining comedies featuring crowd-pulling stars such as Fernandel, Tino Rossi and Luis Mariano.  Curiously, Pottier's worthier and more interesting films have been all but forgotten, and these include more serious and stylish offerings such as his occasional (and often inspired) excursions into film noir territory - Le Monde trembera (1939), Huit hommes dans un château (1942), Picpus (1943).   L'Aventure commence demain is a halfway house, lying somewhere between the kind of film that Pottier excelled in and the kind that was more likely to appeal to appeal to a mainstream audience.

Stylistically, the film has much in common with the director's more sober attempts at a film noir crime movie.  André Germain's atmospheric photography has a distinctly American noir feel to it, but this jars with the generally irreverent tone of the script, which suggests a somewhat tongue-in-cheek pastiche that doesn't quite come off.  This was one of Norbert Carbonnaux's earliest screenwriting efforts and the wild sense of fun that we find in some of the films he would later direct - notably Candide ou l'Optimisme au XXe siècle (1960) - is curiously absent.  What could have been an all-out farce (in the Billy Wilder mould) ended up as a somewhat predictable and strait-laced comedy, although the slickness of Pottier's direction and the film's stylish presentation are a more than adequate compensation for this.

What most redeems the film and prevents it from being too tame for its own good is the amiable trio of lead actors who, although very much in vogue at the time, have since virtually faded from memory.  There's almost a superabundance of charisma in the pairing of Italian diva Isa Miranda with the dishy French actor Raymond Rouleau, but throw in André Luguet (France's nearest approximation to Ronald Colman) and you have an ultra-smooth line-up that could save just about any humdrum film.  Luguet is at his best when the humour is just contained beneath the surface (in contrast to Rouleau, who is better suited for farce), so it's no surprise that he comes off best and ultimately outclasses his two more glamorous co-stars.  Recently restored to pristine condition by Lobster Films, L'Aventure commence demain wears its age remarkably well and can hold its own against many a classic Hollywood comedy of its era - definitely a film worth rediscovering.

Film Synopsis

Clarence has everything she needs to be a successful adventuress - beauty, charm, cunning.  Men are putty in her hands and yet Lady Luck never seems to be on her side - until the happy day when her path crosses that of Claude, a more enterprising con artist.  Claude suggests that he and Clarence join forces to swindle a wealthy ex-colonial named Maxime.  Clarence's beauty and Claude's brains prove to be a winning combination and Maxime, ever a sucker for an attractive woman, is easily duped into replacing a valuable item of jewellery which Clarence apparently 'lost' in his company.  Realising that Maxime is a con man's dream come true, Claude concocts an even more ambitious plan - to rob him of a fortune in ivory by stealing the concession to an elephant graveyard in Africa.  It is Maxime who will have the last laugh, however...