Un soir de réveillon (1933)

Un soir de réveillon is a French-American film comedy first released in 1933, directed by Karl Anton.  The film stars Meg Lemonnier, Henri Garat, Armand Dranem, Arletty and René Donnio.  It has also been released under the title: Christmas Eve.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


One Christmas Eve, Monique is invited to dine with her aunt, who is hopeful that she will marry Monsieur Landier, a man whose only attraction is his wealth.  That same night, Monique visits her friend Viviane and persuades her to invite her to a Christmas Eve party, where she will be chaperoned by her father’s loyal servant, Honoré.  At the party, Monique, passing herself off as Viviane’s sister Ninon, attracts the attentions of a handsome young playboy, Gérard.  Aware of the immense gulf between their social positions, Monique tries to dissuade her new admirer, without success...

The main attraction of this somewhat dated operetta is its wonderfully eccentric cast, which includes the delightful Arletty – the future star of Hôtel du nord (1938) and Les Enfants du paradis (1945) - in one of her early film appearances.  The plot is a typical 1930s muddle of coincidence and mistaken identities, the songs are so abysmally bland they ought to have been cut, but the cast inject so much verve and humour into it that, overall, the film is quite entertaining.

© James Travers 2008 Write a review for this film...


What do you think of this film?

More French Comedy
More French Musical
Recent DVD releases