Le Portrait de son père (1953)
Directed by André Berthomieu

Film Review

Immediately after her star-making appearance in Willy Rozier's Manina, la fille sans voile (1952), 18-year-old Brigitte Bardot lent her talents to this lacklustre comedy, sans bikini but with no shortage of her customary gamine charm.  Here Bardot plays second fiddle to the film's real star, the popular comic performer Jean Richard, who has fun with the country bumpkin role to which he was particularly well suited - the character he plays here is obviously a precursor to the one he would later play in Jean Bastia's Champignol films.  The lack of ambition and imagination in the screenplay is reflected in André Berthomieu's uninspired direction but Richard's amiable presence, assisted by Bardot at her most adorably winsome, makes Le Portrait de son père an engaging if not particularly memorable timewaster.

Film Synopsis

Paul, an unsophisticated country boy, is surprised to learn that he has inherited a fortune from the father he has all but forgotten.  Arriving in the city, he must take over father's ailing department store, aided by his sympathetic stepmother and half-sister Domino.  He falls in love with a shop assistant at the store, Marie-Louise, and within no time he is running a prosperous enterprise.  But, despite his success, Paul longs to return to the country...