Cafe owner
A trio of criminals gradually become entangled in theft and crime. Serge is arrested, his mistress, Hélène, and his accomplice, Michel, both become lovers, try to exonerate him and use false fingerprints first, then after Serge's conviction, gloves covered with the same fingerprints of the prisoner.
Franz Schubert retired from Vienna in country for musical writing. He draws his inspiration from a romance with the watermiller's daughter. An operetta in the fifties Vienna style. This is the only movie from Marcel Pagnol in color and the only movie in rouxcolor, a French experimental process derivated from the agfacolor German process.
Nicolas
A little town erupts in turmoil about the construction of a public urinal. The army is sent in to restore order, but the military add to the confusion by getting involved with the local women.
The boss
Émile Boulard is a props man in a Paris movie studio. He has a wife, Suzanne. Or to be more accurate, let's say he HAD a wife since she left him fifteen years before, allegedly ... to go buy a post stamp. But now that their daughter Martine , who lives with her, is old enough to marry, she resurfaces. She confesses that, in order to explain his absence, she has told Martine her father was a great explorer and lion hunter in Africa. Not to disappoint his daughter, Émile accepts to pose as the adventurer he is supposed to be. At the same time he will help Daniel, Martine's bashful fiancé, not to become a henpecked husband like him.
Bender
A young woodcutter turned into a boxer, learns the sad fact that some of his triumphs have been stage managed, and confronts his nasty manager.
M. Paul
The invincible bandit faces his daughter, courageous and honest, who wants to end his criminal activities. With a young journalist, her fiancé, she discovers his hideout.
Fiellat
When Monsieur Crauqual, the supervisor, is found hanging, all wonder why this rather rich person decided to kill himself. And when a pupil is found hanging too, François and his friends decide to investigate. They are certain there is a killer within the walls of Collège François 1er and determined to prevent him from going on running wild.
Le brigadier
Thérèse kills her lover during the very night of her wedding to the count of Vétheul. To gain a night with her, a modest local worker agrees to bury the body.
Julien Mortal, a singer from Portugal suffering from amnesia, made a career in France under the name of Paolo. One day, he discovers the truth about his past: a man tried to assassinate him.
On his way to Paris, Casanova keeps on collecting female conquests, does not shy away from duels and gets into many a colorful adventure. Once in the capital, the fearless knight saves the honor of a great lady, conquers the niece of his implacable enemy but courts disaster for love of Coraline, a faithless opera dancer.
L'agent
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.
Inspector Gardel
The Director of an international banknote printing institute, mutilated by the face of the Great War, Frank Davres, falls in love with a young woman, Jeanne, admirably beautiful, but blind. He marries her. For her, he ruins himself and comes to issue counterfeit banknotes. The young woman does everything to make people forget her infirmity. One day, following an operation, she recovers her sight and notices the physical and moral ugliness of her husband. She hides her cure until the day when Frank, taken by the police, kills one of his accomplices and commits suicide. Jeanne leaves to join a friend with whom she was performing in a circus.
The adventurer Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, descendant (by the left hand) of the king of France Henri II, and who claims to be "Countess de la Motte", imagines a tortuous plan to steal a magnificent diamond necklace that the queen Marie-Antoinette refused to buy from the jewelers Boehmer and Bassange.
Swimming instructor
The scene is set during the Second Empire. Captain Bitterlin watches jealously over his lovely daughter Madeleine but he cannot prevent nature from demanding its rights and Madeleine soon finds herself a suitor in the person of Mario, a dashing young songwriter. Bitterlin, who wishes his daughter to "evade the grip" of the young man, takes her away to Monte Carlo. There, the captain does what he had sworn he would never do, he gambles in a casino. And even more upsetting: Mario might well be hereabouts...
Sophie de Réan, an unruly mischievous little girl grows up under the thumb of Mademoiselle, her strict governess. Following her mother's death, she is entrusted to Mme de Fleurville, her aunt, who at the same time hires Mademoiselle to further Sophie's education. A few years later, the little girl has blossomed into a lovely young lady. She is now in love with Paul, her cousin, who, unlike her, used to be a model child. Unfortunately Mademoiselle will not hear of a union between them. Instead she wants Sophie to marry Armand, the conceited son of Prefect Hugon. To make matters worse, Paul, the good boy, unexpectedly turns into a revolutionary, who defends the Republic on the barricades against Louis Napoléon's coup. Not being one of the victors, Paul is forced into exile. Will Sophie finally yield and accept the established order or will she react in her usual rebellious way and follow the one she loves ?
Pierre risks being taken advantage of by an agency that sets up financial scams, he escapes thanks to Marcelle, the secretary of the director of the agency, who is a childhood friend. She does her best to keep the young man away from the scams of his boss. However, the director, in love with Marcelle and jealous of Pierre, succeeds in trapping and ruining him. Marcelle will then denounce him to the police, but before being arrested he will kill her.
Alex Grégoire is a timid insurance company clerk who shares his uneventful life between his wife Angèle, his colleagues and his passion for crosswords. But all of a sudden his existence changes dramatically. First because he wins a crossword competition. Second because a jewel thief, Charles Tuffal, thinks he recognizes in him a former accomplice. From that moment "uneventful" is not the best adjective to qualify Alex's life anymore...
The Innkeeper (Marthe's father)
The bell ringer at a way station in the French Alps, murders a passing horse trader with a thrown rock and relieves him of his bankroll, in order to bribe the daughter of his only friend, a head injury victim considered the village simpleton, into marrying him, despite her love for a lowly woodsman who is, in turn, being cajoled into marriage by the daughter of the wealthy innkeeper.
A ruined banker is abandoned by his mistress. He commits suicide after entrusting a prostitute with twenty-thousand francs. The money changes hands. A crook is arrested in the house of an an actress he had fooled. In a luxury hotel, a typist kills her lover's wife. The trial of the murderer is followed by the bankruptcy of another financier and the money finally returns to the mistress of a suicide in the restaurant in which she had first appeared.
Daughter of a French officer and an Annamite, Mahlia was brought up in Indochina by Mr. and Mrs. de Roussière. Their son, Henri, would like to marry her but they are against it. Mahlia flees and Henri is killed for trying to protect her. The young girl enters the Mission to raise children there in the love of France.
Paccard
A famous convict Jacques Collin, alias Trompe la mort, or abbot Carlos Herrera, also called Vautrin, escapes from prison. Chance makes him meet Lucien de Rubempré, an impetuous and eternal lover who, when he is dismissed, collapses. Moved by this fragility, he takes him under his wing, and will do everything possible to ensure that his creature reaches happiness, even if it means imagining the worst shenanigans and other scams, with the help of a band of clever villains.
Jeannou lives in a castle in Périgord with his father, the last man of aristocratic lineage landowners, very attached to traditions. She meets Peter, a young engineer, she joined in Paris, decided to marry her. A few months later, pregnant, she returned to the area where the wedding will be celebrated.
Madame Millois, an ambitious mother, thinks she has found the perfect match for her daughter Arlette, Count de Tremblay-Matour. Alas, the ideal husband happens to be a crook. On the night of the wedding, the fake nobleman robs his wife and abandons her. While the outraged Madame Millois looks for the real Count de Tremblay, Arlette seeks consolation with Maxime, a childhood friend. At last, the real count is found. Unsurprisingly, he is furious to learn that, legally, he is Arlette's husband. After a while though, he mellows and accepts to "remain" Arlette's husband.
The struggles of a small business owner come to light in this film by director André Cayatte. The proprietor of a fabric shop, M. Baudu (Michel Simon) faces stiff competition when a department store moves in across the street, the first of its kind in 1860s Paris. On top of the stresses associated with the rival retailer, Baudu’s niece and two nephews take up residence with him after recently being orphaned. The niece, Denise Baudu (Blanchette Brunoy), sees the writing on the wall for her uncle’s business so she takes a job as a shop girl with his competitor and despite her success the decision does not register well with the family.
le serrurier
The struggles of a small business owner come to light in this film by director André Cayatte. The proprietor of a fabric shop, M. Baudu (Michel Simon) faces stiff competition when a department store moves in across the street, the first of its kind in 1860s Paris. On top of the stresses associated with the rival retailer, Baudu’s niece and two nephews take up residence with him after recently being orphaned. The niece, Denise Baudu (Blanchette Brunoy), sees the writing on the wall for her uncle’s business so she takes a job as a shop girl with his competitor and despite her success the decision does not register well with the family.
Hérode
Out of love for an actress, Isabelle, the Baron de Sigognac joins a traveling troop en route to Paris. When an actor dies, he takes over his role: that of Captain Fracasse.
An old woman living in an inn is killed and her family members seem like the likely culprits.
A Lord
At the end of the 15th century, two traveling minstrels Gilles and Dominique come to the castle of Baron Hugues. Gilles charms Anne, Hugues' daughter, while Dominique charms both Hugues and Anne's fiance. Gilles and Dominique are not really in love: they were sent by the Devil to test desperate people. But Anne is so pure that Gilles is caught in his own trap... How will they fight against the Devil?
Le chef-mécanicien
Hector and Odette Dupuis' car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, but not far from a luxury hotel. The couple are well off but, being miserly, Odette is determined to keep her budget tight. Fortunately for her, the hotel offers rooms for domestics costing only 35 francs, so she decides to pass her husband as her chauffeur. As far as she is concerned, Odette presents herself as Baroness de Garches and takes a 250 franc room. But their stay soon becomes complicated. For instance, Palureau, a widower with five daughters who is planning to remarry, starts courting the 'baroness'. And that is not all since at the same time Angèle, a chambermaid, makes advances to Hector ! To make matters worse, Ferdinand, Angèle's boyfriend, decides to get even with Hector, his 'rival'. The jealous guy steals a jewel from a guest and has poor Hector accused of the theft.
Innkeeper
Marie, a young bourgeois and Jean, a cargo sailor have an affair, she becomes pregnant but he has to go back to the sea. Marie leaves for Paris where she meets Pierre and marries him. War breaks out, Jean and Pierre will befriend each other on the front.
Jaminet
A retired colonial official lives a quiet life but things are dramatically changed when he has to look after his granddaughter for a while.
Romain (uncredited)
The everyday life and activity of "La Dernière Heure", a major evening newspaper, seen through the eyes of Hélène Perrin, a cub reporter trained by Pierre Rabaud, a star in his field. Side by side they will investigate several events: an air show that ends tragically, the coming to France of a Hollywood actress, a lightship caught in a terrible storm...
A tramp has taken up residence in the belly of a museum whale.
Caprices tells the story of two young rich people. A famous actress poses as a poor florist, and a distinguished society man camouflages himself as forger and swindler. This game leads them to make close relations in a series of adventures.
The coffee maker
Maurice loves Juliet and Michael loves Lily. Romance blossoms on the hill. They are workers, artisans, and Lily has a real talent as a singer. But Claude's arrival brings trouble to their relationships. Maurice, jealous, approaches Lily. Singing in the streets, Lily quickly becomes a cabaret star.
L'inspecteur Picard
Six friends promise to share their fortune in 5 years. The moment is very close, but one of the six is mysteriously murdered, then another... Superintendent Wenceslas Woroboyioetschik (aka Wens) is in charge of the investigation...
Dubier
After a deadbeat patron at his restaurant gets special care from the cops who think the man has amnesia, the maitre d'hotel decides to pretend he too has amnesia. He is claimed in turn by an aristocrat family and by trapeze artists.
Ernst Roehm
The film shows the seizure of power by the Nazis and Hitler wants a trial, at a time when France has just declared war on Germany (Sept. 3, 1939). Hybrid composition, it alternates originals and reconstructions performed by actors (docudrama). A not-so-subtle condemnation of Hitler, Nazism and Germany by the movie's French film makers, which conveniently makes no mention of how the policies of Great Britain and France created Hitler and allowed him to go as far as he did prior to the beginning of the Second World War.
12-year old Armand-Pierre embraces the French Revolution and leaves his mother to enlist in the army.
le boulanger Laporte
A gang of broke student musicians travel to Paris to take exams. But very quickly, the lack of money pushes young people to pass themselves off as professionals during the performance. They will then win the victory!
Baron de Maupré
Cavalcade D'Amour is divided into three sections, each depicting a romance occurring within the walls of the Chateau de Champs. Legend has it that whoever marries in the Chateau is doomed to an unhappy life. This proves to be the case in 1639 and 1839, but the heroine of the 1939 segment, Corinne Luchaire, is determined to break the jinx. She is convinced that she will prove an unsuitable bride for Claude Dauphin, and he is likewise convinced that he will turn out to be an inadequate groom. But the couple's respective families will not be dissuaded, and the marriage takes place as scheduled? with unexpectedly happy results!
Un camionneur
Frank, a hobo, ends up in a garage-truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Nick Marino, its older, kind and naive owner, is married to Cora, a sexy and mercenary woman half his age. Frank, although not a fan of hard work, accepts Nick's offer to work for him. Of course, it is not for Nick's sake that the young man becomes his attendant, but for the love of Cora under whose spell he has fallen at once. It does not take long before Cora, who despises her husband, asks her lover to help her get rid of him. Frank is reluctant at first but ...
Un journaliste
The film depicts events between the Fashoda crisis in 1898 and the 1904 signing of the Entente Cordiale creating an alliance between Britain and France and ending their historic rivalry. It was based on the book King Edward VII and His Times by André Maurois. It was made with an eye to its propaganda value, following the Munich Agreement of September 1938 and in anticipation of the outbreak of a Second World War which would test the bonds between Britain and France in a conflict with Nazi Germany.
Rameau, le coiffeur
At the beginning of World War I in a village in the country of La Marne, two families are against the marriage of their children. The war changes the positions.
Middle-aged Georges of the "old school" who offers shelter and comfort to Marcelle. Despite his own reservations, Georges falls in love with the much-younger girl, remaining faithful to her even after he realizes that she cares only for his money.
Le sergent de police
In the middle of the 19th century, Tsar Alexander II made the acquaintance of a young aristocratic girl from the provinces, unruly in character. He falls in love with her and tries to see her again.
Pimaï, the strong-headed anarchist, joined the navy out of bravado. But the sweet influence of a young girl leads him to prove that he is worthy of the profession he has chosen and the flag he serves.
Le chef de la bande
Town trollop Safia, much against her better judgment, falls in love with Matteo, a beggar and mystic in the native quarter of Sirocco. She flees to France, first as the mistress and then wife of a wealthy archaeologist, and bears him Matteo's child, whom he believes to be his own. Complications arise years later when Matteo finds Safia, and a ring of blackmailers uncover her past and exposes her to her husband.
The scene of action embraces Tangier, Toulon and the Mediterranean, where Pierre Fresnay, Rolf Wanka and Kim Peacock, cast as captains of French, German and English boats, respectively, unite to rescue the passengers of a neutral boat that is about to be engulfed in a cloud of poison smoke released by a smuggling ship.
Un acteur (as P. Labry)
Alexis, a former war pilot, attempted the Paris-Tokyo raid and failed. He became a taxi driver. The film actress, Margot Fontane, forgets her bag in the taxi and Alexis thus meets her. He goes to see the great actress shoot, he is hired for a small role as an aviator, and to simulate a take-off, he flies to Tokyo. It is the signal of happiness for the two lovers.
Bernardin
In a college, three friends form a secret society. Their objective - going to America. One night, after one of their secret meetings, one of them sees a man coming out from a wall. The next day, after he talks about it, he disappears. Then, the second one vanishes. Are they gone to their dreams? That's when the art teacher is murdered. Suspicions now are too high so the third one decides to investigate.
Stable Boy
A small town postal official allows a military officer to sweep his lovely daughter away to St. Petersburg, assuming the man will do the right thing and marry her.Instead, a future of scandal and tragedy awaits her.
Captain Justin Mollenard works for a company that sells armaments to the Far East. After an eventful stay in Shanghai, where he and his cargo are the victim of a malicious attack, he returns to his hometown of Dunkirk. Mollenard receives a frosty welcome from his wife Mathilde, who resents the way in which he has neglected his family for so many years. Mollenard’s only wish is to get back to sea as soon as he can, but a sudden heart-attack leaves him paralysed and entirely in his wife’s power...
A religious fanatic finds his entire life and philosophy turned upside-down as he falls in love with a girl and kills her in a jealous rage. His search is for peace of mind and a desire to justify the murder of the girl to himself. His mind becomes distraught as he gropes trying to rationalize his deed and his world falls apart around him. A police inspector patiently and tirelessly stays on Barrault's trail, without putting him under arrest, though convinced he is the murderer, and waiting for the moment when he feels Barrault will break under the strain of his own religious fanaticism (IMDb).
Paris, 1937. Winckler kills his enemy Gordon, a Chicago mobster, from the stage of a Parisian music hall, where he performs telepathy. He pays another artist, Helene, so that she tells the police they've spent the night together, which doesn't fool Callas, the police officer who investigates the murder. He hires one of his fellow officers in order to seduce Helene.
Goliath
1915, in invaded Belgium, the Germans seek in vain to dismantle the organization of the smugglers of men who help volunteers to cross the Dutch border.
A French-language remake of Douglas Sirk's "The Court Concert" (1936).
Maître Morlot, le notaire et cousin
Life story of a charming scoundrel, with little dialogue other than the star/director's witty narration. As a boy, only he survives a family tragedy when he's deprived of supper (poisonous mushrooms!) for stealing...concluding that dishonesty pays. Through years of dabbling in crime and amusing adventures, two women appear and reappear in his life, a dazzling blonde jewel thief and a stunning brunette gambler. Finally, he meets the mysterious Charbonnier who had saved his life in World War I, leading to the surprising next phase in his career...
Poudroux
A lady who had a secret affair lives in fear.
Le paysan
Raymond Bernard’s film of a script by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (The Little Prince) about a young woman who aspires to become a pilot.
The Innkeeper
Flanders, Hispanic Monarchy, 1616. The inhabitants of the small town of Boom are busy organizing the annual local festivities when the arrival of the Duke of Olivares, who rules the country on behalf of the King Philip III of Spain, is announced. While the male citizens cowardly surrender to panic like rats on a sinking ship, the brave female citizens, led by the bold wife of the burgomaster, decide to become the best hosts the Spaniards can ever meet.
Marbot
During the First World War, before joining a squadron at the front in 1918, Herbillon (Jean-Pierre Aumont) has a liaison with Helene (Annabella), a married woman. The young man discovers that his mistress is none other than the wife of Maury (Charles Vanel), an aviator friend.
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.
le noceur
In 1913, in Russia, a widower hides from his daughter that he is butler in a restaurant of rendezvous. She meets a banker who seeks to seduce her and takes her to this restaurant. The father, knowing the decadent life of this client, immediately sends his daughter back home. The pure love that her piano teacher gives her will allow the girl to console herself for her disillusions.
In 1912, a Russian officer is wrongly accused of having stolen important papers. His only alibi being to have spent the night with the wife of a colonel, he allows himself to be condemned so as not to compromise the latter. He manages to escape and hides in the guise of a poor boatman. One day, the truth comes out, the colonel commits suicide and the lovers are finally reunited.
An Hungarian young man hides his real identity as baron Barinkay until he returns to his birthplace and claims the family properties, now occupied by a clumsy pig dealer who has a beautiful daughter. The gypsy girl is not bad looking either, and the gypsies are willing to help him recover his home and fortune. French version of Der Zigeunerbaron based on the Strauss operetta, filmed at the same time with a different cast except for Wohlbrück.
l'aubergiste
The turkey keeper, Bettina, brings good luck to those who make her work. She becomes the mascot of the good King Laurent XVII whose finances are in bad shape. In order for her to retain her beneficial power, an attempt is made to separate her from her lover, but in vain.
Commander
From Constantinople to Marseilles, aboard a cargo ship, an intrigue full of adventures brings together a courageous young girl and a young risk-taker who succeeds in thwarting a series of long-planned crimes.
A local man raised two boys. One is his son and the other is that of a rich industrialist, to get the bonus to the unhappy father, he gives his own son a lazy scoundrel, to the tearful father and decides to keep the other boy, but the truth does not soon to burst.
Through the fault of the Leech, Bibi la Puree and her friend Bob find themselves involved in a crime. The judge in charge of the investigation discovers in Bob a relative. He does not send them to prison and welcomes them to his property.
Mr. and Mrs. Noblet run a boarding house on the French Riviera. One day, they are led by circumstances to welcome a little boy Pierre, whose father is in jail, into their home. Which makes Louise Noblet all the happier as she can't have children herself. But, after a while, Pierre's father is released from prison and reclaims his son... Time passes and Pierre, now a young adult, lives in Paris more or less on the wrong side of the law. He has a mistress, Nelly, who does not say no to other men's money... Louise, who still loves Pierre as her own son, wants only one thing - to help him get by.
Lagasse
When the war is over, a captain finds it very difficult to reintegrate into civilian life. Nothing happens, neither in journalism nor in insurance.
Le cantinier
Pierre , a young lawyer, has enormous debts due to his mistress Florence and her whims of luxury life. Pierre has gone too far and put the family firm in jeopardy. They ask him to expatriate. To avoid scandal, Pierre joins the Foreign Legion. In Morocco, near the desert, Pierre goes with his comrades of the Legion to a bar-restaurant-brothel, owned by a shady character, Mr. Clement . Clement lives more or less with Ms.Blanche who is a fortune teller with cards, as a hobby. But Clement is also after his girls now and then. Pierre is still obsessed with Florence but he meets Irma , one of Clement's girls, who is the double of Florence except for hair color. Irma has had an accident and has lost part of her memory at a certain point of her recent past, and Pierre slowly persuades himself she is Florence, but cannot remember it. Advised by Ms.Blanche, Irma finally accepts to act as if she was Florence because she is falling in love with Pierre.
Minche
The story focuses on a street in the Parisian banlieue where Italian and French workers live. Their neighborhood will soon be demolished and a mysterious character hides himself in this street.
Inspector
A young man is kidnapped by his business competitors, but the jailer falls in love with the man she has to keep a prisoner. A lost film.
Balafre
A young man is kidnapped by his business competitors, but the jailer falls in love with the man she has to keep a prisoner. A lost film.
Adolf, le fiancé de Milly
The intersecting lives of neighbors in a courtyard apartment building in Vienna,including a football player related to the concierge,a new blonde maid hired by the wife of a baron,whom both the athlete and a baron flirt with,and a deadbeat tenant who fakes his suicide.
Beppo
José
An Arabian prince falls in with a group of downtrodden rebels and faces the wrath of an unsympathetic sultan whose wife he is also romancing.
The life of disorderly soldiers in the barracks dealing with daily routines.
Ludovic
The story is about a drug ring and the finally successful efforts of the Paris police to break it up. A young detective goes into a den in Paris' Chinatown, following a clue, and that is the last seen of him until his body is found floating in the Seine several days later. The only clue is a woman's glove. The dead man's friends on the force vow to avenge him, and receive information leading them to suspect one Sandra, a beautiful foreigner, played by the stunning Marcelle Chantal.
Soldat Bouffioux, le cuistot
The young and patriotic student Demachy joins the French army in 1914 to defend his country. But he and his comrades soon experience the terrifying, endless trench war in Champagne, where more and more wooden crosses have to be erected for this cannon fodder.
Charignoul
Also known as Lilac, this early Anatole Litvak-directed talkie was based on a play by Tristan Bernard and Charles Henry Hirsch. The story bears traces of the Bertold Brecht-Weill piece The Threepenny Opera, with heroine Lilac (Marcelle Romeo) consorting with the criminal scum of Paris. Lilac falls in love with a handsome detective (Andre Luguet), but he doesn't let his emotions stand in the way of his duty, and in the end he reluctantly turns her over to the authorities. At $120,000, Coeur de Lilas was one of the most expensive movies to come out of France in 1931, but it more than made back its cost at the box-office.
Le client de la guinguette
Le Goff
"L'Occident" presents a story of the reaction of East and West in contact. It is based on a novel of Henry Kistemaeckers, produced for the screen by M. Henri Fescourt. The story is of the love of Hassina, daughter of a Moroccan chief, and Lieutenant Cadière, who lands from his ship to get information for the fleet about the position of an army of rebel tribesmen.
l'Américain
American accountant Harry Mascaret made his fortune thanks to an investment and decides to offer himself a stay in Paris with his fiancée Dolly. A burlesque, Roaring-Twenties comedy ensues.
Unsucessful writer Théodore Larue is mistakenly believed to be drowned during a vacation at the sea with his wife Lucie. The latter persuades him to play dead because the incident increases his popularity. Théodore pretends he is his brother Anselme. Trouble begins when the actual brother unexpectedly returns from Madagascar.