Le Curé de Saint-Amour (1952)
Directed by Émile Couzinet

Film Review

Of the handful of films directed by Émile Couzinet few are as enjoyable as Le Curé de Saint-Amour, a light-hearted old-fashioned comedy of manners which was based on a popular play by Jean Guitton.  At the time the film was made, Guitton's play was already a tad out-dated but Couzinet gives it a new lease of life, assisted by an exemplary cast that includes some of French cinema's most capable character actors.  The fact that, sadly, most of these great actors have been forgotten accounts for the film's present obscurity, although it is a treat for anyone who happens to come across it by chance.  Some amusing, if not to say downright eccentric, musical numbers add to its appeal.

Heading the cast is a magnificent Frédéric Duvallès, tirelessly entertaining as a good-natured parish priest who spends most of the play being caught between a rock and a hard place, the rock being Christian charity, the hard place being a formidable aunt played with obvious relish by Jeanne Fusier-Gir.  Pierre Larquey, the most familiar face in the cast (owing to the fact that he was in virtually every French film of this era), gives great value as Duvallès's well-meaning but hopelessly inept valet.  In one scene Larquey even gets to sing a song, one of the very few occasions he did so on screen.  Le Curé de Saint-Amour isn't spectacular entertainment, nor is it uproariously funny (except in one scene where the asylum manages to get overrun with toddlers), but it has great charm and, thanks to the contributions from its great cast, it out-shines many better known French comedies of this decade.

Film Synopsis

On the day she is supposed to marry the respectable baron she is affianced to, Nicole elopes with the man she really loves, Jacques.  Nicole's aunt, the indomitable Marquise de Sainte-Ange, is understandably outraged by this turn of events and goes hurrying after her niece, determined to bring her to her senses and avoid a society scandal.  Nicole and Jacques arrive in the village of Saint-Amour, where they take sanctuary at the house of the kindly parish priest.  When the Marquise shows up, she persuades the priest to help her to guide Nicole back to the path of righteousness before it is too late, but Nicole has one more trick up her sleeve.  It seems it is too late to save her honour as she already has a child born outside of wedlock!