Mademoiselle ma mère (1936)

Mademoiselle ma mère is a French comedy romance film first released in 1936, directed by Henri Decoin.  The film stars Danielle Darrieux, Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Larquey, Robert Arnoux and Fred Pasquali.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


In her search for the perfect husband, Jacqueline Vignolle is slowly driving her parents to distraction.  After fourteen failed engagements, Jacqueline still hasn’t found her beau idéal, and so she decides to marry the next eligible man she meets.  This turns out to be Albert Letournel, a fifty-something widower with as much spark as a dilapidated headstone.  The wedding goes ahead, under the disapproving gaze of Letournel’s son Georges, who is older than his new stepmother.  Naturally, the marriage proves to be a disaster.  Jacqueline’s loathing for her husband and his son drives her to elope with another man.  Determined to give Jacqueline a piece of his mind, Georges runs after her.  Their confrontation does not go quite as planned.  In fact, Georges and his stepmother fall passionately in love...

Here’s one for the trivia buffs: what do Le Roi Soleil, Miss Adelaide from Guys and Dolls and Jaqueline, the lead character in Mademoiselle ma mère, have in common? Answer: the number fourteen.  The Sun King was also known as Louis the fourteenth; Miss Adelaide had been engaged to Nathan Detroit for fourteen years and Jaqueline... well, why don’t you watch the film and find out for yourself.  

The newly-married Henri Decoin and Danielle Darrieux followed up their initial effort, Le Domino vert (1935), with another gem, in which poppa Marcel Simon marries daughter Danielle Darrieux off to André Alerme, a guy well on the wrong side of antiquity.  But this is where the story really starts because Alerme comes complete with a son, Georges, played with consummate ease by Pierre Brasseur - in the days when producers still saw him as a matinee idol and not someone who would ever dream of shooting Jean Gabin in the back (as in Le Quai des brumes).  

We now have a classic triangle situation: a pretty young girl married to an old man but irresistibly attracted to her handsome stepson.  Give this plot idea to playwright Eugene O’Neill and you’ll wind up with Desire Under the Elms, but if it’s a lemon soufflé that floats your boat then hand it to Henri Decoin.  Mademoiselle ma mère is a delight, the very epitome of French cinema in the thirties.

© Leon Nock (London, England) 2010 

Write a review for this film...


What do you think of this film?

More French Comedy
Recent DVD releases