It was already the third time that Danielle Darrieux and Albert Préjean were opposed in a movie. (Sorry for this, Didier.)
They were the leads in the French cast of a multi-language German production, "Der Schlafwagenkontrolleur", "Le Contrôleur des Wagons-Lits" in its French version, directed by Richard Eichberg, released on February 1935.
And they were already opposite before (but not to end the movie together), sharing the lead with Mireille Perrey and Claude Dauphin, in René Guissart's "Dédé", released on December 1934, a mere six months before this "Drôle de Gosse". Yes, young Miss Darrieux, as soon as she was in the business, became very much in demand. (Nothing mysterious in this: just take a sip of five minutes of any of her early movies and you'll understand why producers and directors felt compelled to offer her leading parts).
But, to return to the present topic, this third association was the less convincing. The main reason, in my opinion, was the holes in the characterizations of the parts. As dbdumonteil has already underlined it, Préjean's behavior is somehow puzzling, which leads to problems with the other main character, Miss Darrieux's, who spends the second half of the movie in loud and erratic activities that almost embarrass the viewer.
Obviously, it's not the actors' ability but the writing which is in cause here. And I still wonder why I gave the movie a 7/10 mark... For what the notes are worth, yes, but... Maybe because I was under the influence of one of those recent French payed-by-TV-soon-on-TV pseudo-comedies that over-crowd big and little screen nowadays... So yes, in that respect, Joannon-Mirande's stuff is well worth a 7/10. But compared to "Dédé" or Eichberg's work, or what was to come... On an other side, Darrieux didn't always win, and some of her pre-WWII comedies were not half as good as this one --I'm thinking of "Mademoiselle ma Mère" (Decoin, 1937), for instance, which is far louder, heavier, and almost inept. Yes, Darrieux is human, after all, and could have a miss, even when filmed by her loving Decoin.
In Léo Joannon's filmography, this movie is one of his ups--he had many many downs, but nevertheless he is an interesting director to follow, along his very long career. (We'll talk of this another time, but to name one, his half-crazy and hallucinated "Le Défroqué" was one of his best movies and, thematically, a real UFO in the French cinema skies.)
But "Quelle drôle de gosse" is a let-down, though, minor but a let-down when compared to "Vous n'avez rien à déclarer?" (1937) of this same Joannon who desperately need a solid script and consistent dialogs when making a comedy. Allégret, Anouilh, Aurenche, Veber had delivered the goods then. Here, scenario and dialog are not up to the par.
C'est la vie.
(Didier_fort at homail.com)
