Le Bonheur (1934)

Le Bonheur is a French romantic film drama first released in 1934, directed by Marcel L’Herbier.  The film is based on a play by Henri Bernstein and stars Gaby Morlay, Charles Boyer, Michel Simon, Jaque Catelain and Paulette Dubost.  It has also been released under the title: Happiness.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Clara Stuart, star of music hall and cinema, arrives in Paris, to great public acclaim.  She has everything – fame, wealth, and – through her aristocratic husband – a title.   Hence, whilst she is worshipped by the masses, she is the object of hatred for Philippe Lutcher, am impoverished artist and notable anarchist.   Lutcher shoots Clara Stuart after she gives a public recital, but he cannot bring himself to kill her.  At his subsequent trial, the star attempts to plead in her assailant’s favour, but Lutcher rejects her support.  During Lutcher’s prison sentence, the anarchist and the star communicate and reveal their love for one another.  A year later, Clara is ready to take Lutcher as a replacement for her husband.  Then Lutcher discovers that Clara is starring in a film which re-enacts their story…

Le Bonheur is pretty typical of Marcel L’Herbier’s output in the 1930s, a conventional piece of melodrama intended to showcase the stars of the day, in this case Gaby Morlay and Charles Boyer. The latter was on the verge of a huge film career in Hollywood and so this was to be one of his few significant roles for French cinema.   Le Bonheur is miles away from the films with which Marcel L’Herbier is now most associated – his ambitious classics of the silent era, such as L’Argent (1929).  The director’s talents lie in use of scale and imagery, so his down-to-earth dramas are inevitably a disappointment.  Structurally and artistically, Le Bonheur is okay but somewhat bland; a protracted courtroom scene drags the film’s pace to a painful crawl; and the comic elements do not sit well along side the bleak, noirish drama.  Yet, for all its faults, Le Bonheur is a charming piece of 1930s French cinema.  It has Michel Simon, an asset to any film of this period, and a pretty respectable performance from Charles Boyer (in fact, one of his best).   There’s also some scathing satire (admittedly less forceful than in L’Herbier’s earlier films), and the atmospheric photography skilfully reflects the changing moods of the film’s protagonists.  Certainly, Le Bonheur is far from being a masterpiece, but it does have an enduring appeal.

© James Travers 2005

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