La Crise est finie (1934) - film review

A theatrical troupe is making a tour of the provinces when a bust up occurs.  Unable to tolerate the caprices of the leading lady, the rest of troupe decide to form a new group and head off for Paris to mount a show.  To their surprise, the roads of the capital are not paved with gold and, without any money, their dreams soon begin to fade.  Luckily, they find an empty theatre where they can live and rehearse for their new show.  With a little cunning and a certain amount of dishonesty, they acquire the materials they need to make the sets and costumes.  However, they still lack a piano.  The beautiful debutante Nicole spends an evening with the piano seller Monsieur Bernoullin, hoping he will give them a piano in exchange.  She doesn’t know that her boyfriend, the troupe’s musician Marcel, has already given him a cheque.  Unable to cash the cheque, Bernoullin refuses to deliver the piano, so another member of the troupe, Olga buys it with her savings.  Vexed, Bernoullin determines to prevent the show from going ahead.  To that end, he hires the theatre and intends converting it into a cinema.  The crisis is far from over...

With the rise of Nazism, director Robert Siodmak left Germany in 1933 and moved to Paris, where he continued his filmmaking career for a few years before settling in Hollywood.  La Crise est finie is the second film he made in France, an effervescent musical comedy set against the backdrop of economic depression and political uncertainty, very similar to Mervyn LeRoy’s Gold Diggers of 1933.  It is interesting that Siodmak manages to retain his expressionist style – which evokes the hardship and pessimism of the period – yet, at the same time, inject so much fun and energy, making this a joyously entertaining piece.  The film’s stars are Albert Préjean and Danielle Darrieux, who would both have hugely successful film careers.  Darrieux, here in one of her earliest screen roles, radiates charm and vitality, and was a major contributor to the film’s great success in France.

© James Travers 2006

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