segment 1 'La Bestiole'
Chauvet
Miguel foils a bank robbery and becomes a successful nightclub singer, but he doesn't know that his wife is being courted by an Italian fitness instructor.
Le dirigeant
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...
Loulou
Sorbier
La Garçonne is a 1957 French film directed by Jacqueline Audry. It follows Monique, an ingenue and a clueless girl who believes in true love. When she discovers her future husband has a lover, she rebels against her bourgeois life:s he will lead a free and wild life and she will live like a man. Soon she becomes the toast of Gay Paris, sleeping with all the men around, and even with a woman.
Marchandot, butcher
Two unlikely companions must smuggle four suitcases filled with contraband pork across Nazi-occupied Paris.
Cousinet
M. Bouvier
In Les Halles, in the heart of Paris, the restaurateur André Chatelin, leads an uneventful life until the arrival from Marseille of Catherine, the daughter of his ex-wife Gabrielle. She tells him her mother is dead and that she is without resources. Chatelin welcomes her under his roof - then marries her. Gérard, a young student that Chatelin looks upon as a son, becomes Catherine's lover, and she sets him at odds with Chatelin. She asks him to kill the restaurateur. He refuses. She kills him. Having discovered that Gabrielle is still alive, declined and drug addicted, Chatelin realises the darkness of Catherine's soul who has always lied to him.
Jean Tribot aka Mr.Davis
A group of inhabitants from Ferté-sous-Jouarre decide to spend their jackpot on a three day trip to Paris.
Mr. Moulon / Purzel
Gerard, a 25-year-old student, decides to find a treasure Troilus lost in the sea after the Peloponnesian War. His meeting with Manina jeopardises his plans of finding the treasure.
Cousinet
Discharged, catholic priest Pellegrin is back to his cure of Sableuse .But the castle has been sold to Nouveaux Riches,the Cousinet ,whereas the former owners ,Monsieur De Sableuse and his son,have settled in the outhouse.
Raoul
Robert Montfort, happily married to Solange, is his parents-in-law's pet aversion though. To them he is a punk, a good for nothing, a small-time, untalented poet! Robert, who is more gifted than what they think, manages, following a workmate's recommendation, to debut as an entertainer in a nightclub and -even better- to please the audience. Not daring tell the truth to Solange he starts leading a double life, being Robert Montfort in the daytime and Jean Rigobert at night. Of course his wife wonders what is going on and worries about his regular night outings. Only too happy, her parents incite her to have a divorce. Fortunately, all comes right in the end.
Mathieu les grands pieds
Just before wowing international critics and moviegoers with his adventure romp Fanfan la Tulipe, director Christian-Jaque dashed off the lampoonish Barbe-Bleue. Ostensibly the story of the famed wife-killing potentate Bluebeard (Pierre Brasseur), this lighthearted costumer begins as the title character is poised to march down the matrimonial aisle for the eighth time. Barbe-Bleue's newest spouse Aline (Cécile Aubry) is kept in line by her husband's claims of murdering her predecessors. But when Aline opens the famous locked door to the equally famous hidden room, both she and the audience are in for quite a surprise. The frivolous nature of Barbe-Bleue is underlined by its pleasing utilization of the French Gezacolor process.
Julien Latour
After an accident, Raymond has gone blind. His family treats him like a child, but fortunately a nun comes to his rescue. She works in a center where blind people learn to read using the Braille alphabet.
Schnell
Having fallen out with his girlfriend Dolorès, Juanito leaves for Mexico, where he becomes a famous matador.There he meets a Viennese singer, Fanny Miller, who falls for him so much so that she intercepts the letters Dolorès keeps on sending him. In desperation, Dolorès devotes all her time and efforts to dance and she becomes the celebrated dancer Estrellita. After a series of misunderstandings and ups and downs, the sun of Andalusia will finally reunite the two lovebirds.
Schnell
Juanillo is in love with Dolores, the daughter of the owner of an inn. He likes to sing, she likes dancing. After the village festivals, where Juanillo has acted as a bullfighter and Dolores has performed, he has been hired as bullfighter for a tour in America. They exchange vows, but their letters will be intercepted.
Editor-in-chief
Back from a stay in the Far East, a woman who knew the names of the chiefs of a drug ring is murdered. Georges Masse, the famous reporter, decides to investigate, accompanied by his faithful photographer P'tit Louis. He will come across some unappetizing characters like M. Dubois, a killer, Luigi Costelli, a dangerous trafficker and a beautiful but dubious lady, Suzanne Wilson. After being himself suspected, Masse will make the truth triumph.
Panard
Josette needs to marry within a year to get her aunt's money but her fiance has left.After getting permission from her godfather for a "white wedding, " she realizes she loves the godfather instead.
Gaston
Marguerite secretly loves a novelist whose face no one knows. The jealous husband sets up a scheme by asking an actor friend to play the novelist and behave in an execrable way in order to disgust his wife. But things never turn out the way you think they will.
A gangster, thief of atomic formulas, has a double in the person of a naive musician. A music hall artist who makes eyes at the musician is deceived by the gangster who also takes advantage of the resemblance to track down a band of thugs who are chasing him. Virtue is ultimately rewarded.
Mareuil
Employed in a beauty salon, Amédée must undergo a pentothal injection. The dose is too strong; suddenly Amédée reveals the truth to everyone; to clients of the institute; to his cheating wife; to his boss that he robs; to the tax collector; etc. When the effects of the truth serum wear off, everyone returns contentedly to their little swamp.
Vuillemin
World War I aviator Carbot attempts to establish a commercial airline after the war, for the purpose of delivering the mail to the outermost regions of France.
Rossignol
Between eleven o’clock and midnight one evening, a notorious trafficker Jérôme Vidauban is shot whilst walking in a tunnel in Paris. The case is assigned to Inspector Carrel, who is Vidauban’s perfect double. Using his resemblance to the arch criminal, Carrel manages to infiltrate in Vidauban’s circle of acquaintances and contacts. He becomes embroiled in a bizarre web of intrigue and discovers no shortage of possible murder suspects, all of whom appear to be surprised to see him still alive.
Touvoir
1944, France experiences its last days of German occupation. A microcosm representative of the various attitudes adopted during this troubled period, some heroic, others less brilliant, the Grégeois family, scattered by the war, will strengthen its ties according to the Allied advance on the territory and the liberation of Paris, with its joys but also its sorrows, because not all of its members will survive the relative chaos that will characterize this end of the world war.
Noblet
Everyone in Paris thinks Fantomas is dead. A wave of extortion, blackmail and murder all point to the master criminal. Inspector Juve and his reporter friend Fandor set out to find the truth.
Ventura
In Paris, in the middle of the 19th century, the Comte de Chamery died of poisoning, leaving a considerable fortune to his long-dead son. Sir William, the count's murderer, hires a young rogue, Rocambole, to pretend to be the deceased's son. The two accomplices have the Count's fortune handed over to them. But their trickery is discovered by an intriguer, Baccarat, who finds the real Count of Chamery, a young painter without fortune, in love with Carmen de Montevecchio. Rocambole, who stops at nothing, kills Sir William, gets rid of Armand and makes Carmen love him. But Baccarat is determined not to let him continue his villainies.
Ventura
In the 19th century, a thug from the slums of Paris pretends to be a young aristocrat, but is unmasked by a demi-mondaine, from the same background as him.
Leroy-Garnier
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.
Barette
Gino Fabretti is a famous Italian tenor. During a tour in Nice, he begins a relationship with the wife of a renowned doctor. The doctor traps and drugs him and replaces his vocal cords with those of Robert, a delivery boy in a grocery store. Robert wakes up with the voice of Gino and Gino with that of Robert (including accents and mannerisms!). The unfaithful wife despises the tenor without his voice and becomes more interested in the grocer.
They have been living together for some time in a bohemian environment. The boy is attracted to a friend of his mistress and he frankly acknowledges his feeling. His companion favors meetings and even multiplies them: satiety, habituation, weariness set in very quickly. It is the shrewd mistress who will be married.
Monsieur Coussol
Fanny Le Doublond has a lover, Jean, and her husband is beginning to have suspicion. To calm him down she makes him believe that Jean dies of love for another woman and wants to commit suicide if his love is not returned. The two accomplices select a young creature named Claire Coussol for the (unwitting role)of the "beloved". As for Jean, he plays the suicidal man to perfection. But what the two lovers had not planned at all is that Claire, deeply moved by Jean's "act of desperation", starts growing fond of him.
To be able to win paradise, a selfish old billionaire, who has just died, must make someone happy. He will have to guide a young girl through the intricacies of love.
Monsieur de la Jacquerie
A plucky businesswoman agrees to receive love letters to a prefect’s wife from a young official, and soon finds herself embroiled in a scandal that inflames a town’s class tensions.
Julien Blanchet
Gilbert, poet and singer, is about to marry Lilette but deep inside himself he is not quite sure that she is the woman he needs. That is the reason why he has made up an imaginary woman, Frédérica" to whom he writes love letters, actual ones this time. When Lilette finds one of these, she sees red. Théodule, one of Gilbert's many friends, sets out the problem with the help of Claudine, his own girlfriend, posing as Frédérica. After Gilbert and "Frédérica" have played a phony breakup scene in front of Lilette, things seem to come right when... another Frédérica appears...
Le banquier Antoine
Robert and Françoise Monier make a hot air balloon to fly to the stratosphere. After a visit to Venus, they return home, but have only aged 15 days whereas 25 years have passed on Earth.
Rosine, who spends her time as a model, has to deal with the advances of a disreputable young man.
Ernset
Rosine, who spends her time as a model, has to deal with the advances of a disreputable young man.
Gaëtan
Returning from America where he received a large inheritance, Alaric would like to have a wedding before returning to the family home where his sister, who is as cantankerous as she is uncompromising on principles, awaits him. He asks a “porter” from the station who looks like him to replace him.
Regrattier
The romantic relationship between a sports journalist and a cyclist during the Tour de France.
Chavert
Serenade represented the return to the screen of international favorite Lillian Harvey after an absence of two years. Based loosely on the life of composer Franz Schubert, the film casts Bernard Lancret as Schubert, Harvey as his dancer sweetheart, and Louis Jouvet as a possessive Baron who has his own designs on our heroine.
Harsh Parisian judge Gaetan (known as Monsieur Maximum), chafing in the idleness of retirement, leaves for a seaside holiday. But Gabriel the chauffeur has his mind on his girl, not the car; Gaetan and wife Nathalie are stranded in the country, where they find shelter in a low class bistro patronized by cheerful jail birds. Once the ice is broken, they have a wonderful time, but as the judge tries to trick his new friends into reforming, inevitable exposure approaches...
Georges Legrand is a young unscrupulous reveler. He seduces Fred, a woman doctor before shamelessly dumping her for Aline Ribourg, a tennis player. Soon fed up with his new conquest, he returns to Fred. But Aline is pregnant from him. Showing an admirable sense of self-sacrifice, Fred manages to persuade Georges to marry Aline.
The wife of a Parisian municipal guardian wins a beauty contest in spite of herself and narrowly escapes more or less honest adventures.
Following a slight accident, a stranger appears in a Provençal village and knocks at the door of the Philippes'villa, asking them for help. Albert Philippe is suspicious but his wife shows some interest in the man. After leaving the Philippe family, the unknown man goes to the village, meets the mayor and buys an island opposite the Philippe villa. It suddenly appears that the mysterious fellow is none other than Balthazar Lemonnier, a well-known millionaire. No sooner is the news disclosed than everybody, including the initially distrustful Mr. Philippe, wants to become his friend.
Julien Moreuil
An operetta baron has teamed up with a mechanic to carry out insurance scams. During one of their shots, they come up against Boulot, a drunken but clever driver, who ends up having them arrested after revealing their ride.
Marmousot
A love between a teacher and his assistant is thwarted, because of their too great age difference.
Uncle
Ginette, daughter of a foreman of an automobile factory, and Claude, son of the director of this company, love each other, but the father of the young man refuses the marriage.
Remy
Albert Durandal is unable to keep a job for more than a few days. The reason: he hums while working, which invariably irritates his superiors. He is not hired as a singer for all that, as no music producer is prepared to bet on him. At the moment he is as free as a (singing) bird and accepts to take care of Josette, the little daughter of Jeanne, his neighbor, who is sick and has to go to a sanitarium. One day, while walking down the street, he helps an old man who has an attack. The latter happens to be an influential millionaire. And with a heart of gold into the bargain : he helps Albert to make it in the singing career. And as Jeanne has recovered, he can marry her and adopt Josette.
Speculator Vauxcouleur
At the urging of her childhood friend Brémontier, Lucie de Kéradec, a wealthy widowed countess who wishes to remarry, invites all of her seven suitors to her mansion. Her untold intention is to test them by claiming to be ruined. The experience is a success in that each of the potential husbands reveals his inner nature but a failure when it comes to finding a new life partner. None of the guests passes the test except - the eighth man, namely Brémontier who loved Lucie in secret but, being penniless, had not dared declare his flame to her.
Rigaud
René, a simple employee of the Univers agency run by Mr. Lebourdier, loves Yvonne. But Mr. Martin dreams of a brighter party for his daughter. In order to win the post of deputy director, René asks Nenette, a pretty blonde, to seduce Mr. Lebourdier. But Nenette is Mr. Martin's girlfriend and she manages to fix everything.
François
In Vendée, an old farmer is gradually abandoned by his family who do not see their future in the fields. Only a cripple in love and abandoned remain at his side.
The pharmacist Bourrachon learns that his wife Adrienne deceives him with Dr. Rigal, whose specialties he sells in his pharmacy. His sister, the authoritarian Mrs. Bruneau, urged him to divorce and introduced Geneviève to substitute Adrienne. But after five months of marriage, Geneviève gives birth to a child whose real father turns out to be Henri, the salesman of the Bourrachon pharmacy. Mrs Bruneau will then try to persuade her brother to bring an action disavowal of paternity for the honor of the family and especially to protect the inheritance of his own daughters. But Bourrachon will eventually become attached to the child and endorse his paternity.
Coton
A French novelist passes off an African shepherdess as a princess.
Under the Directory, Clairette is in love with the chansonnier Ange Pitou, while the hairdresser Pomponnet is destined for her as a husband. But Ange Pitou is flighty and lets herself be seduced by Mademoiselle Lange who wanted to know the author of seditious couplets.
The maid and the driver of Sidonie de Valpurgis have the absurd idea of subletting the hotel of their boss during her absence, and precisely to Sidonie's ex-friend, who wants to spend his wedding night there.
The crazy adventures of a character forced by circumstances to take on such dangerous professions as those of gangster, burglar, Chinese chiropodist and amateur detective.
Pierre
The happiness of a newly-married couple, Henry and Jeannie Saint Clair, is shattered when the husband is made a paralytic in an automobile accident. The wife still loves him, although he is incapable of any physical love. She is slowly drawn into a short-lived affair with a handsome athlete, Robert Vanier. When the husband learns of the affair, he commits suicide. But the wife cannot forget him and she sends her lover away.
Le collègue d'Albert
Bernard, Sleeper Coach conductor and automobile inventor, is confused to be the racing car company president, and falls in love with a countess, who is actually a slogan prize winner chorine.
Pali
The famous singer Antonia left the stage to marry a country gentleman. She goes alone one day to Budapest to see again the operetta which revealed her and outlines a flirtation with an aviator engaged to her niece. The presence of mind of the latter pleasantly closes the adventure.
Léo
A genius director whose daring and sensual films have earned him the nickname "The Merchant of Love", claims to escape commercial contingencies and direct the film of his life on his own. It is a resounding failure that leads him to the forfeiture from which the fate of a woman's love.
Jean
After being saved from suicide due to an unhappy marriage, Marie hesitates between two other men, but lands up rejoining her husband in the colonies as she now expects a baby.
Letourneur
Two women love the same man in a world of few prospects. In Budapest, Liliom is a "public figure," a rascal who's a carousel barker, loved by the experienced merry-go-round owner and by a young, innocent maid. The maid, Julie, loses her job after going out with Liliom; he's fired by his jealous employer for going out with Julie. The two lovers move in with Julie's aunt; unemployment emasculates him and a local weasel tempts him with crime. Julie, now wan, is true to Liliom even in his bad temper. Meanwhile, a stolid widower, a carpenter, wants to marry Julie. Is there any future on this earth for Julie and Liliom, whose love is passionate rather than ideal?
A young sportsman, heir to a tyre manufacturers wants to end the rivalry between his father's company and their main rival, by marrying the daughter of the rival family.
A young man, having seduced his friend's mistress, undertakes to leave his wife to the latter for one night, when he is married. A few years later, the friend claims his due and the young man introduces him to his so-called wife.
Jean Moreau
Christianne Delannoy is the daughter of Mr. Brown, who subsidizes a nursery in memory of his affair with Mrs. Delannoy. She loves Doctor Moreau, but her mother forces her to marry a rich young man.
A young man who loves his wife wants rid of his troublesome mistress. He dresses up as a wealthy Brazilian and seduces her in a jiffy. He hopes to reach a settlement, that she must sign. In this settlement she will promise to break with her lover. He can then show that he is a faithful husband.
A jeweler's clerk accidentally swallows a pearl worth three million. The jeweler accepts his marriage to his daughter if the clerk agrees to have the operation. The adventures follow one another until the day when the clerk admits that he has not swallowed the pearl, but as he has become a famous man, the jeweler accepts him as his son-in-law.
Willi
Fresh out of prison a small-time crook finds his girlfriend's dropped him, which sends him into a murderous rage.