Baccara (1935)
Directed by Yves Mirande, Léonide Moguy

Film Review

The only thing to commend this limp comedy is the chalk-and-cheese pairing of Lucien Baroux with Jules Berry, two major stars of the period who form a likeable double act that has more than a touch of the homoerotic about it.  The film is a typical plodding 1930s affair (would you think it was a comedy?) that offers absolutely no surprises, whilst the characters are thinly drawn archetypes that would have seemed old hat even in the silent era.  Yves Mirande's directing is far more creditable than his screenwriting (which is at best mediocre), although his direction is never anything more than workmanlike.  As ever, Berry is a delight to watch, although such is the (sub-standard) quality of the script that his performance lacks its usual gravitas and finesse.  Watching Baccara today, you can't help wondering just what audiences saw in Lucien Baroux - apparently he was a big name in the 1930s.

Film Synopsis

With her rich sugar daddy, the banker Gouldine, on the brink of financial ruin because of his risky investments, Elsa Barienzi fears that she will be deported to her own country.  The only person she can turn to is the lawyer Maître Lebel, who has a fondness for her.  The solution is for Elsa to obtain a marriage of convenience, which will give her a legal right to remain in France.  To this end, Lebel offers a friend of his, André Leclerc, a 150 thousand francs to marry Elsa and thereby confer on her French citizenship.  At first, Leclerc, an upstanding citizen, is reluctant to go along with this underhand arrangement, but he has his mind changed by a friend, Charles Plantel, who points out that they are both in desperate need of cash.  The marriage goes ahead exactly as planned and Leclerc receives his financial reward, but he insists that he never wants to see Elsa again now that the matter has been concluded.  After the wedding, Leclerc runs into Elsa again and realises that he actually does love her after all...