René Hell

René Hell

Birth : 1891-05-01, Orbec, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France

Death : 1965-10-11

Profile

René Hell

Movies

People in Luck
Un vendeur de journaux (« Le Gros Lot »)
A light French comedy of 5 segments.
The Counterfeiters of Paris
Old garage owner
"Le Dabe" retired many years ago and now he lives in the Tropics where he owns stables and horses. He is a very rich man. He was the king of all money counterfeiters. He is contacted from Paris to organize a new job. He says no. But when he finds out the the currency that should be counterfeited is the Dutch florin, he accepts immediately. He retired after having counterfeited 100 florin notes just before the Queen Wilhelmina retired them from circulation. He flies to Paris. But the gang is not to be trusted, at least not all of them.
A Martian in Paris
The traveling pencil merchant (uncredited)
The title role in the French comedy-fantasy A Martian in Paris is filled by Darry Cowl. The higher-ups in Mars want to learn all about that strange commodity, peculiar to the planet Earth, known as "Love". Darry soon figures out what makes the world go 'round when he meets the gorgeous Nicole Mirel. A Martian in Paris was obviously inspired by the 1960 American comedy A Visit to a Small Planet, which starred Jerry Lewis. Darry Cowl's imitation of Lewis is passable, but it certainly didn't fool the "Le Roi Crazy Jerry" idolators at Cahiers du Cinema and Positif magazine.
The Baron of the Locks
Guest of the hostel (uncredited)
The lucky Baron wins a boat in a card game and takes off with his former lover to find new adventures. Adverse circumstances land them in a small town, where the Baron's seafaring companion leaves for more attractive scenery offered by a wealthy local man. Meanwhile, there is a certain charming cafe owner that the Baron finds irresistible -- at least for awhile.
Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case
Typographer (uncredited)
Police Commissioner Jules Maigret returns to the small village where he spent his childhood at the request of the Countess of Saint-Fiacre, who has received a disturbing anonymous letter.
Witness in the City
Grand-père
Industrialist Pierre Verdier kills his mistress Jeanne Ancelin by throwing her off a train. Her husband, Ancelin, decides to take revenge on his wife's murderer, who has been acquitted by justice.
Et ta sœur...
Julien le concierge
Bastien du Boccage is a repeat offender: hasn't he been sent to jail no fewer than six times? But he is no ordinary criminal mind you. As a matter of fact he is a newspaper editor and should have no problems with justice. The trouble is that he has a sister, Lucrèce, who is agony aunt in his newspaper and who tends not to mince her words. To make matters worse, Francine, his daughter, has fallen in love with Bruno, a penniless student and Lucrèce is prepared to do anything to prevent her marriage..
Mimi Pinson
Dany Robin plays the title character in the French comedy Mimi Pinson. The plot is strictly formula stuff, with Mimi being thwarted on all sides by those who have designs on her money and her virtue. Happily, our heroine triumphs over her foes and predators, finding true romance in the arms of Raymond Pellegrin.
The Night Affair
Le crieur de journaux (uncredited)
Vallois, a vice inspector for the Paris police, takes special interest in the plight of drug-addicted Lucky (Najda Tiller), whom he considers to be more victim than criminal. Taking it upon himself to wean Lucky away from narcotics, Vallois also wins her love -- and, incidentally, smashes the dope ring responsible for her addiction
Tamango
A Dutch slave captain, on a voyage to Cuba, faces a revolt fomented by a newly captured African slave, Tamango. The slaves capture the captain's mistress, forcing a showdown.
The Tricyclist
Le vieux paysan (uncredited)
Antoine Peyralout is baker Mouillefarine's tricycle delivery man. Comical and stuttering, Antoine shows more interest in the local soccer team than in professional integrity. A wedding cake pays the price for it and the young man is dismissed. Not dispirited in the least, Antoine decides to go to Nice, where his favorite team will play the final of the Cup. On his merry (and eventful) way, he has the opportunity to save a pretty camper, Popeline, with whom he falls in love. Once in Nice, he discovers that Dabek, the brilliant goal-keeper is not up to his task following bad news...
The Trip Across Paris
Jambier's father (uncredited)
Two unlikely companions must smuggle four suitcases filled with contraband pork across Nazi-occupied Paris.
Blood to the Head
Le chauffeur des Cardinaud (uncredited)
François Cardinaud is one of the richest shipowners in the region. But this success arouses resentment and jealousy. When Marthe, his wife, leaves the home without warning, Cardinaud sees her life cracking little by little.
Papa, Mama, My Wife and Me
Un homme de l'hôtel (uncredited)
Robert Langlois is now married to Catherine, the former housemaid. And they would live happily ever after if the housing crisis did not force them to live together with Gabrielle and Fernand, Robert's parents. For, despite the good will on either side, tension soon arises. What else to expect when there is too little space in their Montmartre apartment for four people (then for six then eight, the couple having... two pairs of twins!) ; the continued presence there of Fernand (who loves peace and quiet) after he is driven to retirement ; the difficult beginnings of Robert as a lawyer in a room of the apartment, etc... Other troubles follow and the harried family is on the verge of implosion...
Count of Bragelonne
Un paysan
Raoul De Bragelonne must uphold his musketeer father's legacy in the face of court intrigues from Cardinal Mazarin.
Touchez Pas au Grisbi
Un consommateur chez Bouche
Gentleman gangster Max and his partner, Riton, pull off their last, most successful heist and find themselves comfortable enough to retire in the style they enjoy. However, Max confides the details of the theft to his younger mistress, Josey -- who has secretly taken up with ambitious young rival gangster Angelo. Angelo then has Riton kidnapped and demands the stash of gold as ransom, which threatens Max's dreams of the perfect retirement.
Poison Ivy
Un inspecteur
FBI Agent Lemmy Caution is sent after a missing two million in Casablanca while mob boss mistress Carlotta plays both sides of the law.
Un trésor de femme
The guardian
Francois is engaged to Isabelle. While going to buy the engagement ring, he meets Sophie, who puts the ring on her finger and does not manage to remove it. Francois follows in the footsteps of Sophie, who is married to an important merchant, in order to recover his property.
Holiday for Henrietta
The driver (uncredited)
Two scriptwriters argue about the fate of Henrietta, a charming and gamine shopgirl. One favors a comical path for their heroine, who is overcome with sentimental love for a young photographer on Bastille Day. The other has a more thrilling and dastardly fate in mind for her. Among the film's irresistible conceits is Hildegarde Neff as an oversexed circus bareback rider.
Imperial Violets
Le cocher (uncredited)
Run Away Mr. Perle
Le contrôleur S.N.C.F. (uncredited)
Modest fifty-something, Mr. Perle, is a baker in a small provincial town. He lives there with an authoritarian woman and her cousin, a parasite who poisons his existence. A Parisian notary writes to the hero to ask him to come and take possession of an inheritance. In Paris, Perle meets a pretty adventuress.
Ils sont dans les vignes...
In 1935, in the Burgundian village of Valromey, Commissioner Desbordes was the very unpopular leader of the anti-alcoholic league. His own brother, Pimpin, is an unconditional defender of the vineyard. Pierre Moreau is, for his part, the representative of a hygienic drink, the "Koku-Kolu". The cafe owner's daughter, Rose, will find the man very to her liking and will manage to seduce him.
Piédalu fait des miracles
The inhabitants of Marboue-Chambourcy want a swimming pool, and the difficulties in realizing this expensive dream divide the village into two clans: on one side the women, on the other the men. Piedalu, whom this conflict desolates, discovers by chance, as part of a found bicycle, a fortune in gold coins.
Foyer perdu
A brave and talkative wine merchant, Eugène Barbentin drives his son Pierrot out of the family home, because he has given birth to his girlfriend. His wife then reveals to him that he is not Pierrot's father and she flees with her lover. Abandoned, Eugene will be saved by his mother who will restore the situation with energy and determination.
Carrot Top
As the red headed boy writes in his school book, a family is a group living under the same roof who can't stand each other.
Mr. Leguignon Lampiste
Un homme à la vente aux enchères (uncredited)
A railway worker, Leguignon, and his wife are forced to move into a house located in a shaggy part of town. What Leguignon doesn't know is that a group of children have discovered a treasure and keeps it stored in the house. Trouble ensues when he discovers the cache and tries to claim it as his own.
Le crime du Bouif
A poacher nicknamed "Le Bouif" is accused of having murdered his son-in-law, trainer of a horse stable in Maisons-Laffitte.
The House on the Dune
A tough customs man, out to get a youth smuggling tobacco into France across the Belgium border, falls for the jaded ex bar hostess the smuggler lives with.Meanwhile the young man is intrigued by another, more innocent girl.
They Were Five
(uncredited)
Now that the world conflict is over, five inseparable wartime buddies swear eternal friendship now to each other. But there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. Jean becomes a postman, Marcel a boxer, Roger an actor, André a student and Philippe remains what he has always been, a young man of good social standing. Roger, who can't find any role, is introduced through his singer sister Valérie, to Frédo, a shady nightclub owner.Roger soon becomes one of Frédo's henchmen. To make matters worse, he swipes Jean's fiancée, Simone. Marcel, who loses fight after fight, ends up joining Fredo's gang as well. André, who wanted to redeem the faults of his father during the Occupation, gets killed in the Indochina war. Marcel is shot down while taking part in a robbery. In her turn, Valérie is bumped off by an accomplice of Fredo and Roger is sent to jail.
Mammy
Mammy has a grandson she adores even though he is a good for nothing. One day Maurice disappears and Mammy becomes blind. When Maurice finally announces his return the fond old lady is overjoyed. Unfortunately, Maurice's plane crashes and catches fire. The young man is reported missing, presumably dead. Pierre, Mammy's husband, can't bring himself to announce such a shocking news. Desperate, he finds no other solution than subterfuge : he will ask a young couple to pass themselves off as Maurice and his girlfriend.
Piédalu à Paris
Piedalu is an ordinary villager, who comes to the capital to present his financial plan to the Minister of Renovation, and finds it difficult to find someone to listen to him. He meets an actress in Paris, whom he takes for a girl from his country.
Passion
The bistro owner
An unhappy wife who has had a child by her lover lives a daily drama under the watchful eye of her husband who hates them both.
The Real Guilty
Tramp
Inspector Dumont and his deputy Inspector Queneau investigate the murder of a young woman. They learn that the victim was pregnant before her death and that she was the mistress of Mario, a shady playboy who had dumped her while she was with child. A doctor is first suspected but is he the real culprit?
Sweet Madness
Passing for crazy and locked up, the CEO of a company escapes from the asylum and claims that he is the captain of a troop of pirates. To the disappointment of the director of the company and in the company of three employees, he accomplishes many extravagances which will be beneficial for his acolytes.
Les petites Cardinal
The Bonapartist (uncredited)
Napoleon III, the Commune, the third Republic in the background. In the foreground, two pretty, talented sisters, Virginie and Pauline Cardinal. They are ballerinas at the Opera de Paris and very much courted by wealthy, elegant men. They will manage to climb in the society of their time, despite parents set on respectability but also attracted by money.
Victor
Secretly in love with Françoise, the companion of his best friend Marc, Victor decides to go to prison in his place.
The Strange Madame X
cabinetmaker
Irène is the unhappy wife of a wealthy publisher, Jacques Voisin-Larive, who cares about her no more than a beautiful piece of furniture. Her meeting with Étienne, a young cabinetmaker with whom she falls in love, turns her dismal existence upside down. Not wanting to reveal her condition to her lover, she pretends to be a modest maid, employed by the Voisin-Larive. At the end of a weekend spent with her lover, Irène discovers that she is pregnant. The fragile balance of their existence is suddenly broken. Taking the initiative, she reveals her affair to Jacques and tells him about her desire to divorce. But her husband has no intention of giving her back her freedom...
Juliette, or Key of Dreams
Michel has stolen from his employer, Mr Bellanger, for the love of Juliette. He is now in jail. One night, while sleeping in his cell, he wakes up all of a sudden, the gates open and he finds himself in a strange village where all the inhabitants have lost their memory. There, meets Juliette again who seems to agree to marry a powerful man, who might well be Bluebeard...
The Two Girls
Un inspecteur
A famous singer disappears in a plane crash. Her two little girls are given a new home by their grandfather. Unfortunately the good man has an old housekeeper who goes out of her way to make their lives impossible. In desperation the two brats run away to Paris. Meanwhile, the girl's father manages to steal important documents. In the end, Gaby and Ginette track down their mother who had not got killed at all. All is well that ends well.
Dear Caroline
Le cocher
France, July 1782. During her birthday, the beautiful young Marchioness Caroline meets the attractive soldier Gaston. It's love at first sight but Gaston does not wish to make a commitment because a military career waits for him. Caroline marries then a politician but the French Revolution bursts and Caroline has to run away to escape the guillotine. By running away she meets Gaston again who decides to help her.
Without Leaving an Address
Un journaliste (uncredited)
A woman in Paris hires a taxi driver to locate her ex-lover, father to her newborn child, who left her without leaving an address.
Champions Juniors
Even back in 1951, boys knew more about cars than their dads.
The Strollers
L'hôtelier (uncredited)
Jean-Louis forgets to use the pedestrian crossing;Who could have believed then where it would lead the unfortunate guy to?
The Rear-Wheel Drive Gang
A mobster
The manager of a firm has a very unusual idea : asking his employees to pose as gangsters and to hold up a bank before returning the stolen money and pocketing the reward. But things do not go according to plan and the phony thieves get stolen in their turn. They have no other choice than turning into amateur detectives to be able to pay back the stolen dough.
Fugitive from Montreal
Pierre Chambrac, a French industrialist, and Canadian Paul Laforêt, two former brothers in arms, meet again by chance in Paris five years after the end of World War II. Pierre is engaged to a beautiful foreign young lady by the name of Helen Bering. He introduces her to his friend, which seems to trouble him. To his amazement, Helen and Paul disappear without notice. Pierre, who was beginning to feel jealous, sees his suspicion confirmed. He decides to fly to Montreal where he thinks the couple has taken refuge. Once there, he learns that his dear Helen is actually a criminal and that Paul is a policeman whose duty was to arrest her.
Paris Incident
The postman
Story is primarily based on the adventures of Antoine, a young telegraph messenger on his second night of work. He is given three telegrams, one of which is for the president of the Camber of Deputies. Excited, Antoine runs his bicycle into a truck and loses the telegrams. What follows is an amusing and agonizing search for the missing messages. He is assisted first by a glum, wise-beyond-her-years little girl, Amelie; an off-duty police superintendent, a schoolmaster, a cookie-tin maker and a fireman. The harmonica musical theme is played by Flore Falvey.
Mon ami le cambrioleur
The stolen man
When Nadia, his unfaithful mistress, breaks up with him, Patrick Lambert decides to kill himself. But before he reaches the point of no return he is stopped in the act by Camille, a burglar who has just broken into his house. Thanks to him and also to Rosita, Camille's girlfriend who falls for him, Patrick forgets his gloomy thoughts. It is the beginning of a series of crazy misunderstandings and adventures.
No Pity for Women
Player
The wealthy industrialist Alain de Narbois has disappeared. Michel Dunant, an idle man who passed by and who looks exactly like the deceased, is taken for Alain by a young woman and her servant. He jumps at the chance but quickly realizes that, in this hushed little world, masters and servants play comedy and know very well that he is only a double of Alain. In fact, the industrialist was assassinated.
Bed for Two
A bettor
Robert Bobin has been an assistant accountant for twenty years now and, although meek and obedient, is getting weary of his monotonous, limited life. He tries marriage but, unfortunately, Blanche, the nurse he marries, proves to be a shrew. One day, a miracle happens : Michèle, a young orphan and fellow-worker gradually develops tender feelings for him. But will Robert be able to overcome his mediocrity and grasp this unexpected opportunity to find happiness?
One Only Loves Once
Le cabaretier
Although they have loved each other since childhood without admitting it, a surgeon and a young woman see their love thwarted by life.
Les nouveaux maîtres
Durand, a big industrialist, works with an international adventurer, Mr. Ernest, who covets Mrs. Durand and threatens to bankrupt her husband if she does not consent. She calls him a jerk. Mr. Ernest sets out to ruin the Durands, and leaves in the castle that they must sell their couple of servants, Victor and Marie, who become the new masters, at the same time as they serve as a screen for Ernest for his dubious business.
Marie of the Port
Un consommateur (uncredited)
Henri Chatelard is well in his forties, owns a restaurant and a cinema in the city, and appreciate women. When he meets Marie, a 18ish stronghead who just lost her father in a small fishermen village, it is not clear who is the hunter and who is the prey.
Sorceror
An Inspector (uncredited)
A young rogue kills an old lady to rob her. Arrested, he believes it is for this crime, hides nothing from his lawyer, who soon tells him that he is only accused of another theft prior to his crime. Sentenced to six months suspended prison sentence, he will also have to answer for the crime of the old lady.
Rome Express
A valuable painting has been stolen from an art gallery in Paris.. On a train travelling between Paris and Rome, Zutra, a mysterious and sinister character, tries to find the stolen painting.
The Unexpected Voyager
Adrien
Marc, a photographer, works out of love to help Dany, a car thief, to get back on the right track: he offers her to work with him, as a model. But the former accomplices of the young woman compromise this action.
The Story of Dr. Louise
The struggle of a female doctor against superstition and healers.
Night Round
Sewage worker
During Christmas night, two police officers make their nocturnal rounds, in their round they meet tramps, brawlers in a café, a naked man, a concierge, a sexton, revelers in a nightclub, and end by signing in their report to the police station.
Wear His Heart on His Sleeve
Singer from the troupe
Léon Ménard, the village verger, is a decent young man whose hobby is to play the accordion. One day he is fired for having accompanied Mary Pinson, a singer deemed scandalous by the right-minded parishioners. Blinded by his love for Mary, Léon follows her to Paris where he becomes her plaything. With Mary's complicity, a gang of swindlers make him the puppet proprietor of a night club. But Léon can't live in a fool's paradise forever and soon finds himself on the street, forsaken and desperate. Luckily, the manager of a circus notices him while he is busking and he hires Léon at once. Not only will success come to him but he will win the love of sweet Solange.
The Unknown N° 13
While investigating the world of Parisian tramps, journalist René Savary, himself disguised as a poor beggar, notices the strange behavior of a little boy. He follows the brat after he has sneaked out of a barge, catches up with him and takes him to his home. There, the kid tells him about himself : his name is Jean, his mother has disappeared and since then he has been left to fend for himself. Moved by the lot of the wretched boy, Savary, with the aid of his friend Pierrot, undertakes to solve the mystery.
L'homme aux mains d'argile
The fictionalized life, and interpreted by himself, of the popular boxing champion Marcel Cerdan. Training sessions, matches, victories, flight to the U.S.A. where the title of world champion is disputed, form the whole subject of the film.
Five Red Tulips
During the Tour de France, five riders are found murdered with a red tulip near their bodies. A journalist and a police inspector lead the investigation to unmask the murderer.
Piège à hommes
A gangster, arrested by the police, manages to escape during his transfer to Paris. He takes refuge in the suburbs where his accomplices and his mistress await him.
The Cupboard Was Bare
The aunt of Alfred Puc, a meek tax-collector in Paris, dies while riding in a moving van. The driver, not wishing to be bothered by a police interrogation, hides her corpse in a cupboard before notifying Alfred. But the van is stolen. Alfred, being the heir of a rich lady, begins a frantic search to locate the missing van and the cupboard because one can't claim an inheritance if there is no 'corpus delecti.' In his search, he gets caught up in an underworld web and finds the body of a murdered gangster in his room. He finally locates the cupboard but promptly loses it again. But, wait, it isn't "finis' time, yet.
Cité de l'espérance
Gravier
The City of Hope is the place where left-behind artists subsist by scraping by. When one of them is accused of murder, all try to find the real culprit.
Impasse of Two Angels
Stage actress Marianne has decided to give up her career to marry wealthy nobleman Marquis Antoine de Fontaines. As a wedding present, Antoine gives his future wife a precious diamond necklace, which is coveted by a gang of crooks. Jean, one of them, is given the mission to approach Marianne and steal the necklace from her. The only trouble is that when he meets her, she recognizes him as the man she once loved.
L'Ombre
Suspected of murder, a man disappears under mysterious conditions, which only increases the charges against him.
The Figurehead
The game warden
At sea, sailors have got to make do with what they have. François is in love with.... the figurehead, the bust of a gorgeous woman.
Mandrin - II - La tragédie d'un siècle
Around 1750, in the Dauphiné not far from the Swiss border, a cooper, tired of the injustices affecting the peasants crushed by taxes, went into revolt. Louis Mandrin, a handsome fellow without fear and without reproach, puts himself out of the law by refusing to obey the local nobility. The public authorities are tearing their hair out because the man is elusive. Helped by his faithful friends and by two women in love, Mandrin will become a legend.
After Love
The violet merchant
Betrayed by his wife, a teacher proceeds to have an affair with a young and pretty student. The two women both find themselves expecting a child. The girl dies during childbirth. In a spirit of revenge and to keep his real son, the scorned husband exchanges the babies.
Road Blocked
Jacques Audoin falls in love with a pianist, Evelyne Clery, and marries her. In reality, he had wanted to approach her, because he imagined that she had witnessed the murder of the lover of his first wife. Evelyne learns what has happened and, revolted by what she thinks is her husband's plot, commits suicide. Jacques confesses his crime.
Mandrin - I - Le libérateur
Around 1750, in the Dauphiné not far from the Swiss border, a cooper, tired of the injustices affecting the peasants crushed by taxes, went into revolt. Louis Mandrin, a handsome fellow without fear and without reproach, puts himself out of the law by refusing to obey the local nobility. The public authorities are tearing their hair out because the man is elusive. Helped by his faithful friends and by two women in love, Mandrin will become a legend.
Mirror
The mobster
Portrait of a two-faced man. By day he is rich, brilliant and respectable financial officer Lussac; at night, he becomes "Mirror", a ruthless gang leader in Marseilles.
The Room Upstairs
(uncredited)
The local building-contractor Martin Roumagnac is fascinated by the fashionable Blanche Ferrand. To impress Blache, Martin presents her with a villa. However, this ruins him financially. Despite Martin's many efforts for the now femme-fatal Blanche, she is not able to chose between him and the rich consul De Laubry.
Gringalet
A wealthy man has two sons,one of them is legitimate,the other is not.The first offspring has had a life of luxury and he has become a lazy good for nothing whereas the youthful indiscretion has turned into an artist.He is nicknamed "Gringalet" .Now his father wants him to meet his half-brother ,his mother-in-law and the rest of the family. Gringalet will turn this bourgeois family upside down:they become nice,the big brother becoming a perfect businessman who stops scouring nightclubs to spend most of his time with his fiancee Josette.There's the rub,cause Gringalet is also in love with her.
Le cabaret du grand large
Superintendent Thomas is investigating a cabaret owner with suspicious actions.
Happy Go Lucky
le serrurier
After lovers fight, the boy leaves for the Riviera. On her way to rejoin him, the girl meets a distinguished but embittered novelist and decides to spend time comforting him.Which is not going to help when she returns to her boyfriend.
Special Mission
The exploits of Chief Police Inspector Chabrier, first before the invasion of France in May 1940 as he fights against spies preparing the coming the Germans, particularly Emmy de Welder, the alleged manager of the Rouen hospital. Later, Chabrier and his men go underground and resist the occupiers whatever the price to pay. When the Liberation comes Chabrier resumes his activities at the French National Police.