Film Review
1934 saw the release of two films directed by Roger Richebé
which starred Raimu, now one of the biggest attractions at the French
box office after his triumph in the stage and screen productions of
Marcel Pagnol's Marseillaise dramas
Marius (1931) and
Fanny
(1932). One of these films,
Minuit,
place Pigalle, now languishes in almost total obscurity, but the
other,
J'ai une idée,
is comparatively well-known, being one of the best of Raimu's early film
comedies and also Richebé's most exuberant comedy.
Although the film is typical of the kind of muddled farce that was
hugely popular in France of the 1930s it was in fact based on an
English stage play,
Tons of Money,
written by Will Evans and Arthur Valentine, first performed in
1922. The play had already been adapted twice for cinema in the
UK, once as a silent film in 1924 by Frank Hall Crane, then as a sound
film in 1930 by Tom Walls. In 1954, the BBC aired a television
adaptation of the same play, with Raimu's role taken by a young Frankie Howerd.
J'ai une idée has none
of the sophistication and sly malice of Roger Richebé's
subsequent comedies, which include his scurrilous satires
L'Habit
vert (1937) and
Monseigneur (1949), but it is
performed with such wild enthusiasm and verve that you can't help being
dragged along by it, even if the plot is torturingly tortuous.
Raimu's idea of comedy is an art form in its own right, more circus
than theatre with its exaggerated gestures, wacky disguises and
cartoonish face-pulling. In Raimu's more down-to-earth comedies,
this over-the-top clowning about tended to be painfully out of place,
but here, in a pure farce that absolutely revels in its abundant
Wodehousian silliness, it fits perfectly. Raimu tends to get
praised more for his dramatic performances than his humorous turns, but
in Richebé's most unbridled comedy he is unequivocally in his
element - comedy was what he was born for, well, this comedy at least.
With its lead actor being let totally off the leash, the film could so
easily have ended up as a one-man show, with every other cast member
forced into looking like just some piece of stage decoration. Not
so. Far from being outstaged by Raimu's comedic excesses, Simone
Deguyse is the perfect comic foil as the well-meaning wife who
innocently sends Raimu off to the limits of comical absurdity whilst
she remains demure, unflustered and humming with vitality - a cross between
a femme fatale and an unexploded bomb. Charlotte
Clasis and Christiane Delyne also do a fair amount of scene-stealing as
two somewhat more eccentric females - one a strange aunt who looks as
if she would be more at home in
Arsenic
and Old Lace, the other a ditsy flapper-type of the 1920s who
mistakes just abut everyone with a dark tan and a moustache for her
husband. The latter's habit of fainting whenever she sees her
supposed husband is one of the funnier repeat gags employed by the
film. How easy it would be to read a feminist subtext into the
film, particularly as it is mainly the female characters who drive the
plot, creating the absurd comedy situations which lead Raimu to make an
utter fool of himself. Are women the wiser sex? Well,
judging by what happens to poor Aubrey Allington, only a man would be
foolish enough to act on their ideas...
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Aubrey Allington is an unsuccessful inventor who is saddled with debts,
thanks in part to his wife Louise's genius for spending money faster
than he can make it. Imagine then his delight when, one day, he
learns that he has just inherited a fortune from a distant
relative. He quickly realises that he will not benefit from this
windfall as all the money will be snatched from him by his impatient
creditors. But lo, his wife has an idea! The will
stipulates that if Aubrey were to die, the inheritance will pass to his
Mexican cousin, whom no one has seen for years. So all Aubrey has
to do to get his hands on the money and keep it to himself is (a)
pretend to kill himself and (b) pass himself off as his Mexican
cousin. The first stage of the operation goes as planned - Aubrey
makes it appear that he perished in one of his experiments - but when
he is reincarnated as his Mexican cousin he is immediately accosted by
the latter's wife Daisy, who turns up out of the blue and is entirely
taken in by the deception. Things take a more awkward turn when
another man posing as Aubrey's Mexican cousin shows up to claim his
inheritance - he is in fact an actor hired by Aubrey's cunning valet,
but the disguise fools both Aubrey and Daisy. Thankfully, Louise
has another idea! Aubrey must kill himself a second time to make
it appear the Mexican cousin is dead, thereby allowing his wife to
inherit the money, according to the terms of the will. No sooner
has Aubrey died a second time than who should appear but another
Mexican cousin - the real one this time - to claim what is rightfully
his. Louise's stock of ideas shows no sign of running out.
Her next plan is for Aubrey (twice dead, once revived) to come back to
life a second time, this time as his original self, and feign
amnesia. What a good thing it is to be married to someone who is
full of ideas...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.