Une fille sur la route (1952)
Directed by Jean Stelli

Film Review

Jean Stelli's main claim to fame is that he directed Le Voile bleu (1942), one of the biggest hits at the French box office during the years of Occupation, but he directed thirty other films over a wide range of genres, mostly mainstream fodder that is instantly forgettable.  These include light comedies such as Une fille sur la route, a suitable vehicle for popular singer Georges Guétary just as he was gaining international celebrity.  In this dull but amiable musical comedy, Guétary is improbably paired with Jean Lefebvre, a comic actor who was almost ubiquitous in French comedies of the 1960s and is best remembered today for playing Fougasse in Louis de Funès' Gendarme films.   Putting the moderately talented comedian Lefebvre next to the hyper-charismatic Guétary in a scene makes as much sense as putting a low energy light bulb next to a flood light.

Guétary's pairing with Liliane Bert is almost as ill-advised (if there's any chemistry between the two actors it's hard to see with the naked eye) and for once the old Guétary magic seems to be missing - and it is not hard to see why.  The script is laughably pedestrian (in fact, it's mostly a rip-off of an earlier Tino Rossi film, Sérénade aux nuages) and Stelli's direction is, who would think it, implacably dull.  The musical numbers are not great but, enthusiastically performed by Guétary, they are the only thing to reward the effort of watching the film.  After Guétary's previous film appearance, in An American in Paris (1951), Une fille sur la route must have felt like one Hell of a come down.

Film Synopsis

To escape the hoards of female admirers that are constantly haranguing him, singer Carlos Cortez heads for the Côte d'Azur, hoping to spend a quiet holiday under his real name, Jacques Gary.  Unfortunately, all of the Riviera hotels are full and, unwilling to reveal his true identity to gain preferential treatment, he accepts an invitation to stay with a group of campers.  The latter include Annabel, a young hitchhiker who forced him into giving her a lift in his limousine.  Jacques's hopes of a peaceful retreat into anonymity are dashed when he becomes implicated in a jewel robbery.  Only the enterprising Annabel can unmask the real jewel thief, but he proves to be more cunning that she thought...