Le vagabond bien-aimé

The running time on the IMDb seems largely inaccurate for this movie lasts barely 75 min (whereas the page reads 105).It is very doubtful the censorship may have cut parts of such a gentle inoffensive flick.

A French noble loses his English fiancée who marries a wealthy man.So he leaves the United Kingdom and gets back to where he once belonged,his native France.There he hits the road with a young boy called Asticot (=Maggot)who draws pictures of what happens to both of them.These drawings are a good idea ,and the spelling mistakes on the captions are a plus.Gaston ,the hero ,claims that he is through with women but pretty soon another -poor- woman gets into his life.They sing and play the accordion in all the country balls.Back to Paris he meets again his former love soon to become a widow.Back to London,the wedding is in sight.

The most interesting subject of a rather poor screenplay is the naive way the writers see the two countries ,England and France.France epitomizes liberty, recklessness,the bohemian life,the popular songs (Chevalier aptly sings :when a viscount meets another viscount,what do they tell each other ?Viscount's stories)England is that Viscounts country,a posh country where snob elegant ladies send the riffraff to the kitchen where they can have something to eat provided they do not rub shoulders with the elite of the nation.

France had its revolution.England did not,at least so far..