Plume au vent (1952)
Directed by Louis Cuny, Ramón Torrado

Film Review

Based on an operetta of the same title by Jean Nohain and Claude Pingault, Plume au vent is the kind of understated musical comedy that was ideally suited to Georges Guétary, one of France's most popular actor-singers of the late 1940s and 1950s.  As well as making an appearance in Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris (1951), the debonair Guétary lent his musical and comedic talents to a number of appealing French comedies of the '40s and '50s, including Gilles Grangier's Trente et quarante (1946), Jean Stelli's Une fille sur la route (1951) and Maurice Labro's La Route du bonheur (1953).  

Plume au vent was the perfect vehicle for Georges Guétary, allowing him plenty of opportunity to show off his comedic skills whilst exercising his vocal chords, and he proves to be a pretty nifty dancer to boot.  The rambling plot is typical of this kind of movie entertainment from this era, but the plethora of good musical numbers help to distract us from the failings on the writing front.  The film's artistic highpoint is a beautifully staged fairytale dream sequence in which Carmen Sevilla, the film's other star, gets to live happily ever after with her beau idéal (Guétary, of course).

The film was directed capably enough by Louis Cuny, who devoted most of his career to making shorts, the format in which he had most success, although he did make a handful of crowd-pleasing features, including Étrange Destin (1946) and La Femme en rouge (1947).  A Franco-Spanish production, Plume au vent looks modest compared with Hollywood musicals of this period but it is good humoured film which is all the better for not trying to be too grand.  Guétary is at his most amiable (stardom never did go to his head, even at the height of his career) and his uplifting presence elevates this routine musical above the norm.  Vivent les pharmaciens and La Soupe aux choux are two of the film's most enjoyable numbers.

Film Synopsis

Although he is a veterinary by trade, Claude Magazelle has the soul of a poet, and as such has earned himself the nickname 'Plume au Vent' because of his resemblance to a feather in the wind.  Whilst taking a holiday in the country with his best friends François and Jean-Pierre, he meets up with a former sweetheart of his, Alicia, who is keen to rekindle their erstwhile love affair.  Having learned he has inherited a stake in a pharmacy, Claude immediately heads off to Paris, where he soon falls for a pretty girl named Hélena...