L'Hôtel du libre échange (1934)
Directed by Marc Allégret

Film Review

Georges Feydeau's classic stage farce L'Hôtel du libre échange, first performed in 1894 to great acclaim, is given a suitably boisterous screen adaptation by director Marc Allégret in this lively 1930s comedy.  The play was skilfully adapted by Jacques Prévert (assisted by his brother Pierre), just a few years before he began his legendary partnership with director Marcel Carné, and is brought to life by a magnificent ensemble which includes such distinguished performers as Fernandel, Saturnin Fabre, Pierre Larquey and Ginette Leclerc.  Even faster moving than most American screwball comedies of the time, this riot of mirth is exhausting to watch but there is much pleasure to be had in its sheer lunacy.

Feydeau's play works far better on stage than it does on screen, but Allégret and his cast do a fairly respectable job of sustaining the momentum of what is most probably the most energetic of farces.  Today, the film looks somewhat dated and the endless round of misunderstandings, door slammings and frantic racing up and down in corridors (quintessential Feydeau) eventually becomes repetitive and tiring.  In a cast stuffed with Grade A eccentrics (if not to say borderline lunatics), Pierre Larquey stands out as the funniest of them all, although a weirdly O.T.T. Saturnin Fabre (forever cloaked in an entourage of affectionate nymphs) gives him a good run for his money.  The film was a major success when it was first released but now it is somewhat overlooked, one of the lesser entries in Marc Allégret's remarkably varied filmography.

Film Synopsis

Having fallen out of love with his wife, Pinglet, a successful architect, embarks on an affair with Madame Paillardin, the wife of his associate and next-door neighbour.  The two arrange to meet up at the Hôtel du libre échange, unaware that Monsieur Paillardin is on the premises investigating some mysterious noises.  To complicate matters, the Pinglets' maid and Paillardin's nephew have chosen the same rendezvous.  When Mathieu, a friend from the provinces, drops in on the Pinglets with his four daughters, he is sent away and ends up boarding at the very same hotel, taking a room which is reputed to be haunted...