Caprices

Danielle Darrieux is rehearsing for what looks like a production of Shaw's PYGMALION. She's exhausted by the devilish intentions of the play's angel, so she ducks out in costume, where she is rescued by Albert Préjean, who offers to transform what he thinks is a poor flower girl into a princess for the night. Then the show's director sees an opportunity to gain a new backer. Then....

The situations keep transforming themselves under an increasing burden of deceptions, demonstrating that sometimes it is the Prince seeking the poor girl who sits in the cinders in this frothy little tale of table-turning with serious consequences,

Will it all turn out right in the end? Well, this is a film from Continental Pictures, a company set up with the remit to produce light entertainment in the dark days of the Occupation. Sometimes they had a darker understory, and sometimes they gave money to H. G. Clouzot and he blew the entire operation up; but by and large, the people in charge hoped to keep the technicians and performers of the French film industry working and earning a living, and turning out pleasant entertainment. Even though this sometimes doesn't make sense, it does entertain.