Film Review
Marc Allégret's film career never recovered from the media brouhaha
he stirred up in 1955 with his daring adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's
Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Reviled by the critics, particularly those who went on to engender the French
New Wave, Allégret spent the last decade of his long and prolific
filmmaking career casually churning out tepid crowdpleasers, none of which
bears any comparison with the noteworthy offerings of his early decades -
Fanny (1932),
Lac aux dames (1934) and
Félicie Nanteuil (1945).
Sois belle et tais-toi (a.k.a.
Blonde for Danger) typifies
his desultory late output, a pretty anodyne and formulaic example of the
comédie policière genre that was popular with audiences
in France in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. The film was
originally conceived and scripted by Roger Vadim as a vehicle for his wife
Brigitte Bardot (who had previously featured in Allégret's
En effeuillant la marguerite),
but when she declined (after divorcing Vadim) it passed to the less well-known
but equally photogenic Mylène Demongeot, who soon acquired a massive
cult following through her part in the Louis de Funès
Fantômas series of films of the
mid-1960s. The actress had made a fleeting appearance in
Allégret's earlier film
Futures vedettes (1955).
Demongeot is not the only talented and charismatic newcomer that saved
Sois
belle et tais-toi from the total oblivion it probably deserves as a chronically
limp comedy thriller. Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo appeared together
in the film (the third screen appearance for both actors), just a few years
before they rocketed to international stardom - Delon in René Clément's
Plein soleil (1960), Belmondo
in Jean-Luc Godard's
À bout
de souffle (1960). At the time, French film heart-throb Henri
Vidal was by far the best-known name in the cast, although sadly it would
be one of his last film roles as he died just 18 months after the film's
release in 1958, at the age of 40. Two other notable additions to the
cast-list are Roger Hanin and Darry Cowl, who would both enjoy enormous mainstream
popularity in the following decade, Hanin through his muscle-man roles (notably
in the
Gorille and
Tigre series),
Cowl as a madcap comedy performer from the same school of egregious chumpishness
as Jerry Lewis and Norman Wisdom.
Despite the best efforts of veteran cinematographer Armand Thirard,
Sois
belle et tais-toi is a drab and characterless production that has none
of the visual appeal of similar French comedy thrillers of this era.
In fact, it looks and feels like the cheapest and dreariest of B-movie pastiches.
Unlike Gilles Grangier's
Le Cave
se rebiffe (1961) and Georges Lautner's
Les Tontons flingueurs
(1963) the film has very little to commend it, apart from the impressive
acting ensemble that is criminally ill-served by a truly dismal script and
Allégret's uncharacteristically uninspired direction. Whatever
charm the film has is largely down to its dazzling lead performers Demongeot
and Vidal, who make it just about worth watching in spite of the absence
of a credible storyline and the shocking abundance of lazily tossed out well-worn
clichés. The first screen pairing of the French cinema icons
Delon and Belmondo confer on
Sois belle et tais-toi an accidental
historical significance it scarcely deserves. The two actors would
share the credits on a further seven films over the following four decades,
their most highly rated collaboration being on Jacques Deray's classic gangster
film
Borsalino (1970).
© James Travers 2023
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Marc Allégret film:
Un drôle de dimanche (1958)
Film Synopsis
After escaping from a strict Catholic reform school, Virginie Dumaillet goes
on the run and ends up joining a gang of adolescent petty criminals led by
a wild young hoodlum named Loulou. They steal a car which was earlier
used in a jewellery robbery on the Place Vendôme and are pursued across
town by the police. Virginie surrenders herself to the cops to allow
her friends to escape. In police custody, the rebellious young woman
is befriended by Inspector Jean Morel, who pretends to be a crook to gain
her confidence. Morel believes that Virginie will lead him to the mastermind
behind the jewellery theft, a notorious villain named Charlemagne.
When Virginie discovers that she is being duped, she threatens to make a
formal complaint to the authorities. His hand forced, Morel has no
choice but to marry her. Even when she is married to a cop, Virginie
still intends to help out her former criminal friends, unaware that they
are being used by Charlemagne to smuggle his stolen jewellery out of the
country in everyday cameras. When Morel gets wind of the operation
he immediately suspects that his young wife is implicated in it and arranges
a trap. The real culprits are soon exposed and Morel is able to make
his arrests.
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.