Le chant de l'exilé

A vehicle for singer Tino Rossi, "le chant de l'exilé " looks like a poor man's Duvivier's 'la bandera " ,of course sweetened -after all ,it was the Occupation days : a good young man ,working as a fruit and vegetables merchant fresh product from his daddy's farm and occasionally (often more like) singing and charming the belles from Basque region ,complete with berets and folk dances ..... But he's already got a fiancée, the girl his dad took on in his house when she became an orphan... One day, he kills (or thinks he has killed) a mean man ,a pimp ,in self-defence ;so he flees to Africa ,and after trying many a odd job , joins ,not the Legion Etrangère,but the Sahara Pioneers ,militaries whose job is to build roads ,to modernize the country .

With two other guys,they are some kind of "trois mousquetaires " Maurice Baquet ,as "Pas-Béni " (= born under a bad sign ),serves as a foil for Rossi , but often steals the show from him; his sad end is a bit gratuitous ,although the character is unusual : he's a graduate, which was rare at the time ,and he does not seem to be an educated man.

Ginette Leclerc appears more like a victim here ,not her usual bitchy act ; once again, her illness is a facile trick , which purpose is to urge Tino to sing again (he thought his singing brought back luck ).