Le Fruit défendu (1952) - film review

At a dinner party to celebrate his 45th birthday, Charles Pellegrin is praised by his friends as the very model of respectability.  Later that evening, he reflects on the far from respectable double life he has been leading for the past few years.  Five years ago, shortly after taking on his current practice in Arles, Charles married Armande, the perfect homemaker but a far from passionate wife.   On a visit to the nearby town of Marseilles, Charles discovers the passion he desires in Martine, a much younger woman of low moral standards.  Unable to control his attraction for Martine, Charles makes her is mistress, and then contrives for her to have a room in his own home...

This early film from Henri Verneuil is one of many fruitful collaborations involving the director and the great French comic actor Fernandel.   The film, in many ways a conventional early 1950s melodrama, sees Fernandel playing one of his rare straight roles, on this occasion opposite the up-and-coming starlet Françoise Arnoul.

Whilst the film has a certain charm and is generally well directed and scripted,  it doesn’t really exploit the full dramatic impact and poignancy of its subject.  This is partly down to Fernandel’s overly restrained performance, which lacks conviction and depth, and partly because of the absence of any real chemistry between the two leading actors.  Despite this, the film manages to hold the audience’s attention, partly because of the imaginative photography but mainly because of Françoise Arnoul’s delightfully seductive performance.

© James Travers 2002

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