Le Million

When two starving artists learn their lottery ticket has won, the race is on, but — where's the ticket? Although as of today, this film is 82 years old, it is still one of the most watchable and enjoyable films I've seen. It has a bit of everything, humor, pathos, screwball comedy, drama...you name it. In this madcap race to find a winning lottery ticket, you may be reminded of some of the scavenger hunt films or other films such as Million Dollar Mystery, or It's a Mad Mad World, but this one stands by itself. Half Tom and Jerry cartoon, half musical, a little opera, starving artists, sly criminals, beautiful women and a really beleaguered taxi driver...and all funny. Not to be missed.

"Le Million" is a 1931 musical directed by Rene Clair. It's wonderful that it's available on DVD for audiences to see and enjoy it. The story concerns a starving Parisian artist Michele (Rene Lefevre) who is having a bad day. He is being hounded by every creditor in town, and as his fiancé Beatrice (Annabella) walks into his apartment, he is embracing his model. Then he realizes that he has won the Dutch lottery with his friend Prosper (Jean-Louis Allibert), but the ticket is in his coat pocket, and the coat is gone. The city-wide hunt then begins for the coat, which was taken by Beatrice and given to a needy person, who sold it to the opera singer Sopranelli. There is a hilarious scene in Sopranelli's dressing room as various people try to get the ticket out of the coat pocket. Beatrice and Michele wind up behind some scenery on the opera stage and relate to the duet that's being sung.

This film and Clair obviously influenced such talents as the Marx Brothers, Ernst Lubitsch, and Rouben Mamoulian. All the performances are good, with the beautiful Annabella, a brunette here, a standout as the ballerina Beatrice. Annabella was signed by 20th Century Fox and brought over to America around 1938, made Suez with Tyrone Power, and the two fell in love and decided to get married. In order to dissuade her and his biggest star from marrying, Zanuck offered her several films in Europe, but she refused to leave her fiancée. Zanuck made sure she didn't work much after that, effectively blacklisting her. She had a big Broadway success, worked on behalf of the troops during World War II, and returned to France after her divorce from Power. She retired in 1954. Her radio work with Power, and this film, show what a wonderful actress she was.

Very good film - highly recommended.

Le million (1931)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely charming and inventive French comedy takes a simple idea and really expands it to something special. A starving artist name Michel (Rene Lefevre) is being hounded by collectors when he realizes that he's won the lottery. He rushes to get his coat where the ticket is but learns his girlfriend (Annabella) has given it away, which leads to a wild chase in hopes of getting it back. I wasn't sure what to expect when entering this film because I had heard that it contained some pretty strange things but within minutes I was caught up in the story and the way it was being played out. I don't think the movie is laugh out loud funny but it doesn't really need to be. In fact, I think the story could have gone for more slapstick and gotten bigger laughs but, in a strange way, it's smarter than that and goes for something completely different. Having the actors sing their dialogue makes this film come off very fresh today and I can't imagine and fresh and unique it must have been in 1931 when many sound films didn't sound all that great. The delivery of the music is top-notch and many of the "songs" are better than what Americans were hearing in their musicals then. Another major plus are the performances, which are all very charming but Lefevre really carries the thing as he floats around like a feather and really hits all the right moves. The one thing that didn't work too well for me was the rather long sequence at the opera. I thought some of it went on a tad bit too long, although the football scene here was greatly directed.

Besides being very amusing, this French musical feature is quite creative as well. René Clair's light touch is perfect for the material, and it gives the movie a style all its own. In particular, it stands out as one of the best of the earlier sound movies that adopted a musical format.

The story is the kind of simple but amusing premise that, in the right hands, can be built up into a hilarious situation. And that is what Clair does here - beginning with some entertaining misadventures that introduce the characters, he then sets up the main story about the lottery ticket, and from there on it builds up nicely both in humor and in complexity. The climactic sequence in the opera house is a well-crafted, extended slapstick sequence that also includes some interesting parallels.

The cast works well, with Annabella particularly standing out with her engaging performance as Béatrice.

The style is an interesting contrast from what eventually became the norm in movie musicals. The musical sequences, which vary considerably in length, are for the most part worked naturally into the flow of events, rather than being set off as separate numbers. Clair and the cast make this format work well. The overall result is a very enjoyable movie that you will also remember for its imaginative approach.

Rene Clair's groundbreaking musical. If you want to see where songs first drove a story this is the place. This is the story of a starving young artist who finds he's won the lottery just as his creditors come calling. Unfortunately his ticket is in his coat, which is in his girlfriends apartment and has been given to an on the run convict who then... oh but that would be telling.

This is a light and frothy story where much of the dialog is sung (most people think this didn't happen until Oklahoma or Andrew Lloyd Webber). Its the sort of movie that they don't make any more, and rarely did when they did. Its sound a film from the early days that plays like a movie from five or six years later. Clair moves his camera around in ways that not even Busby Berkeley was doing (though to be honest comparing the two film makers is unfair since Berkeley was doing essentially stage bound dance numbers and Clair was moving the camera through "the real world"). Its an amazing little movie. and its a charming movie that will just make you smile. Its just a fluffy piece of enjoyment.

I'm sorry I can't say more. Its just a nice little movie and thats really all you need to know.