French-language version of "The Big House" (MGM, 1930), with Charles Boyer in Chester Morris's role, filmed by MGM parallel to the English-speaking version, at a time when good subtitles weren't yet in use.
Norma Martin (Clara Bow) is an American movie star in France trying to avoid the attention of men. Going to visit a friend in Southern France, she finds herself "married" to a playboy song writer Ralph Forbes (Larry Charters) she hadn't yet met. Some of his lady friends then show up. Some very good sequences, but also some flat spots. Her "husband's" house is very Hollywood deco and some of the costumes are very good.
The film is about a desert-bound member of the French Foreign Legion who exposes a betrayer to the Legion and is then sent on a mission among the Arabs to conclude the signing of a crucial peace treaty.
After losing a fistfight to his romantic rival, wastrelly Clinton Philbrook skulks off to the North Woods. Hoping to redeem himself in the eyes of his sweetheart Alicia Van Orden, Clinton signs on as an apprentice to trapper Pierre Bechard.
