A historian seeks to clarify the mysterious death of Sire de Malvaleix and will find himself involved in the murder of the current descendant.
Famous singer, René Sartène, falls in love with a young bourgeois, Marie. Irène, her stage partner and the director of the show combine their efforts to annihilate this budding happiness.
Le quartier-maître
Vénus aveugle (Blind Venus) is a 1941 French film melodrama, directed by Abel Gance, and one of the first films to be undertaken in France during the German occupation. Although the film is not set in any specified period, Gance wanted it to be seen as relevant to the contemporary situation in France. He wrote, "...La Vénus aveugle is at the crossroads of reality and legend... The heroine ... gradually sinks deeper and deeper into despair. Only when she has reached the bottom of the abyss does she encounter the smile of Providence that life reserves for those who have faith in it, and she can then go serenely back up the slope towards happiness. If I have been able to show in this film that elevated feelings are the only force that can triumph over Fate, then my efforts will not have been in vain."
Court clerk
A parodic trial, in which one sees a merry luron, tried for trifles, rallying the whole court to him as soon as one learns that he inherits a large fortune.
Several men of different nationalities have decided to free themselves from the clutches of women and have vowed to help each other in case one of them might relapse. They find shelter in a hacienda on the pampas. They believe they are now safe from the evil influence of the fair sex. Unfortunately there is a farm nearby in which... a gorgeous woman is said to live. Great principles are short-lived, as they soon realize: lust, jealousy and hate set in at once.
In 1914, students living in a boarding house are disturbed by a young woman. On the eve of being called up, one of them declares his love for her. She abandons herself to someone who may not come back.
After he loses a servant job when his employer's mansion burns down, a yokel makes money entertaining tourists in Breton garb, lands up appearing in a Paris show ,and meets another property owning lady, this one of dubious reputation.
le chef de gare
In 1885, La Guillaumette and Croquebol are two cavalrymen who are constantly victimised by their superior, adjutant Flick. One day, the two men are given an opportunity to redeem themselves by recovering four horses that have gone astray. Unfortunately, they follow the horses' example by taking the wrong train. When they finally make it back to barracks, after a long series of mishaps, they are rewarded with sixty days in prison.
Valerian writes his uncle, colonial millionaire, for money. He meets a quartermaster, Napoleon, who pretends to be a doctor of law. They become friends.
The attempt of a young hairdresser to act in a serious film with his chosen co star , recognized during the shooting as inept, is mistakenly taken by the audience to be deliberately comic.
