Der galante Abenteurer

In the old days, movie theatres always presents a double feature. The star film was a big production, and the first film of the program was a B-Movie. In the USA, Republic pictures made a lot of these low budgets movies. We have the same in France. André Hunebelle was the king of the low-budget French films in the 1950's. Note that B-Movie don't mean Bad Movie. It's just a bit cheapier than the star film. Here's we have a playboy newspaper man (Rouleau) playing the detective better than the dumb detective (Roquevert). We also have bad oriental men. They're also dumb and laughs in a very funny way (Gnark! Gnark! Gnark!). And, of course, we have blondes (who are not so dumb!). This is a fast action movie, with funny dialogues. This is perfect for a sunday matinee double feature in 1950! But today, we can look at it the same way we look at Republic Pictures. Martine Carol will be a star of this kind of movie, so is Raymond Rouleau.

Did you ever wonder who was the French equivalent of Cary Grant? It was Raymond Rouleau. They had height, elegance and imperturbability in common; they were even born the same year, 1904. This film by Hunebelle shows Rouleau's abilities off pretty well, but I have to say the wisecracks and the physical comedy are well below the Hollywood standard that Grant exemplified for so many years. If this is a Michel Audiard script, it's not up to the high standard of his best work.

If you care, there is a gangster named Costelli who has made lots of money in the drug trade out of Indochina (it's the 50's, remember?) and a woman turns up dead in Georges Masse's apartment, and the police suspect him. I was busy admiring Martine Carol's lovely face and body for most of the running time.