Orage

The second movie Michèle Morgan made with Marc Allégret ,just after " Gribouille"-remade as "the lady in question"starring Rita Hayworth- and just before the masterpiece which made her a legend of the French cinema("quai des brumes",Marcel Carné )

In "Gribouille ",Morgan was a bad girl ,who had already had four lovers,the last of whom she accidentally killed;in "orage" she first appears as a free and easy woman , but this part is diametrically opposite to her previous role: she is cynical,sneers at sentimental young men ,often chooses well off gentlemen, she 's no working glass girl for she's got a B.A.

The screenplay is muddled , trite and unpleasantly melodramatic .Besides ,great artists of the French cinema are wasted : why did Jean-Louis Barrault get involved in that business ,in a part which does not excess ten minutes?

Fortunately ,both leads save something from the wreckage : Charles Boyer is an extremely expressive actor and he gives his character substance; Morgan shows some ambiguity : a femme fatale ,but who feels for a bedridden young man in love with her ; a fickle girl eventually in search of le grand amour .That does not account for the preposterous ending .

Best moment : the appearance of Morgan ,almost in the dark ,with the light revealing little by little her beauty.

The remake "delirio" was pointless;neither Raf Vallone nor Françoise Arnoul can make up for the paucity of the script which ,almost two decades later looked even more outdated.