Le Bal des passants (1944)
Directed by Guillaume Radot

Film Review

Le Bal des passants belongs to a justly maligned and justly forgotten stratum of 1940s melodrama that deserves to be shipped into deep space and dumped in the first available black hole.  Director Guillaume Radot was adept (if that's the word) at turning out this kind of vacuous film slush, the kind that makes Barbara Cartland's tacky verbal outpourings look like high class literature.  By broaching the thorny subjects of abortion and pregnancy outside marriage, the film was controversial when it was first seen, at the time of the Occupation, as this ran contrary the morals of the Vichy régime (which sanctified the family).  Today, directed, scripted and acted with no obvious sign of talent, the film just looks unutterably trite and mawkish.

Film Synopsis

When she suspects that her husband Claude has been unfaithful to her Fabienne insists that they get divorced.  By the time she realises her mistake, Claude has already made plans to start a new life in America, but the couple spend one last night together before they separate.  Eight years later, Claude returns to find that he has daughter, the result of his last night of passion with Fabienne...