Aux yeux du souvenir (1948)

The romantic drama Aux yeux du souvenir/Nightstop in Dakar (Jean Delannoy, 1948) starred two of the most beautiful and unforgettable stars of the French cinema, Michèle Morgan and Jean Marais. The screenplay was written by director Delannoy, Henri Jeanson and Georges Neveux. At the 1949 Venice Film Festival, Jean Delannoy was nominated for a Golden Lion.


French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 80. Photo: Qibé. Publicity still for Aux yeux du souvenir/Nightstop in Dakar (Jean Delannoy, 1948) with Jean Chevrier, Michèle Morgan and Jean Marais.


German collectors card. Photo: Prisma. Publicity still for Aux yeux du souvenir/Nightstop in Dakar (Jean Delannoy, 1948).


German collectors card. Photo: Prisma. Publicity still for Aux yeux du souvenir/Nightstop in Dakar (Jean Delannoy, 1948).


German collectors card. Photo: Prisma. Publicity still for Aux yeux du souvenir/Nightstop in Dakar (Jean Delannoy, 1948).

Harlequin Romance

In Aux yeux du souvenir (1948), Michèle Morgan plays Claire Magny, who wanted to be a stage actress, but became an air hostess after an unhappy love affair.

Claire is to marry commandant Pierre Aubry (Jean Chevrier) when Jacques Forestier (Jean Marais), a former love, reappears in her life.

Thanks to Pierre's support, Jacques becomes an airline pilot. During a dramatic flight, Jacques manages to save his plane. Claire realises she is still in love with Jacques. But she is Pierre's fiancee...

The end of the film is inspired by a real event accomplished above the Atlantic ocean on the 7 February 1947 by an Air France crew member.

D.B. DuMonteil at IMDb calls the film 'weak': "Although it features Delannoy 's favorite actress, Michèle Morgan and Jean Marais, perhaps the most attractive couple of the era. Made at a time French people would not take planes, Morgan as an air hostess, and Marais as an airline pilot could easily make a young girls dream. It also glorified Air France. A good writer such as Henri Jeanson could not save a conventional love story, which resembles a Harlequin romance."


German collectors card. Photo: Prisma. Publicity still for Aux yeux du souvenir/Nightstop in Dakar (Jean Delannoy, 1948).


German collectors card. Photo: Prisma. Publicity still for Aux yeux du souvenir/Nightstop in Dakar (Jean Delannoy, 1948).


German collectors card. Photo: Prisma. Publicity still for Aux yeux du souvenir/Nightstop in Dakar (Jean Delannoy, 1948).

Sources: D.B. DuMonteil (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Michèle Morgan (1920-2016), Part 2

Yesterday, French actress Michèle Morgan (1920-2016) died. The classic blonde beauty has been one of her country's most popular leading ladies for over five decades. The delicate, sophisticated, and detached star was especially noted for her large, expressive eyes. Today, the second part of our in memoriam for Michèle Morgan, who was 96.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 451. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 184. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), no. 66. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 616. Photo: Sam Lévin.


East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 810. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Publicity still for Les orgueilleux / The Proud Ones (Yves Allégret, Rafael E. Portas, 1953).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 133, offered by Biscuits Victoria, Bruxelles. Photo: Gibé.

No goodbye girl

During the 1950s, Michèle Morgan continued to be a major star of European cinema. She regularly co-starred with her husband, Henri Vidal. Their films together include La belle que voilà / Here Is The Beauty (Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1950), L'étrange Mme X / The Strange Madame X (Jean Grémillon, 1951), the lavish historical epic Napoléon (Sacha Guitry, 1955) in which she played Josephine, and Pourquoi viens-tu si tard? / Why Do You Come So Late? (Henri Decoin, 1959).

She appeared opposite idol Gérard Philipe in Les Orgueilleux / The Proud Ones (Yves Allégret, 1953) and in the bittersweet Les Grandes Manœuvres / Grand Manoeuvre (René Clair, 1955). Hal Erickson at AllMovie about the latter: "Phillipe plays a dashing dragoon officer, vintage 1913, who wagers his friends that he can make the next woman who enters the room fall in love with him. In strides drop-dead gorgeous Michele Morgan, and the rest writes itself. Phillipe plans a slow seduction and a quick goodbye; Morgan, need we say, is no 'goodbye girl'."

She starred in the historical film Marie-Antoinette reine de France / Marie Antoinette Queen of France (Jean Delannoy, 1956). Morgan plays the Austrian princess who becomes the last Queen of France in the waning years of the 18th century. She also appeared in the American production The Vintage (Jeffrey Hayden, 1957) with Pier Angeli and Mel Ferrer.

In the remake, Menschem im Hotel / Grand Hotel (1959), Morgan played the role of Grusinskaya, which was originally portrayed by Greta Garbo in the award-winning 1932 classic Grand Hotel. Based on a book by Vicki Baum, all of the action takes place in the course of one day in a luxury hotel in Berlin. Grusinkaya is a ballerina staying at the hotel. Other guests include a sophisticated thief (O.W. Fischer), a dying man (Heinz Rühmann), a businessman (Gert Fröbe), and a stenographer (Sonja Ziemann). Hal Erickson: "Events intertwine the lives of these strangers, bringing them together for some dramatic moments but not quite as effectively as in the 1932 film."

Henri Vidal suddenly died in 1959. A year later, Morgan married film director and actor/writer Gérard Oury and stayed with him till his death in 2006.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 579. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 418. Photo: Sam Lévin, Paris.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris (License holder in France for Ufa), no. FK 17A. Offered by Les carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Ufa.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 283. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


Dutch postcard, no. 960.


French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 1137. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Cravates Michèle Morgan

Michèle Morgan appeared in three films with her third husband, actor and director Gérard Oury: La belle que voilà / Here Is The Beauty (Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1950), Le miroir à deux faces / The Mirror has Two Faces (André Cayatte, 1958) and Un homme et une femme, 20 ans déjà / A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later (Claude Lelouch, 1986). She also worked under his direction in a segment of Le crime ne paie pas / Crime Does Not Pay (Gérard Oury, 1962).

Her career took a downturn when the French Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) movement came along in the late 1950s. Its key directors decided to cut ties with the classic French cinema, which many of them had largely despised since the days they had been serving as critics for the Cahiers du cinéma. The only film she did by a Nouvelle Vague auteur was Claude Chabrol's Landru (1963), about French serial killer Henri-Desire Landru (Charles Denner), who wined, dined, scammed, and dismembered over 10 women during WWI. Morgan played a victim, who was eventually burned down by Landru to go up in smoke.

Throughout the 1960s, Morgan continued working in the international cinema. She appeared in films like the Italian historical drama Il fornaretto di Venezia / The Scapegoat (Duccio Tessari, 1963) with Jacques Perrin, the American war drama Lost Command (Mark Robson, 1966) starring Anthony Quinn, and the French comedy Benjamin (Michel Deville, 1968) with Catherine Deneuve and Pierre Clémenti.

In 1968, she largely retired from the screen, but has occasionally returned in films like Le Chat et la souris / Cat and Mouse (Claude Lelouch, 1975) with Serge Reggiani, and Stanno tutti bene / Everbody's Fine (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1990) with Marcello Mastroianni. About the first, D.B. DuMonteil notes at IMDb: "Lelouch really plays cat and mouse with the audience as Detective Lechat (sic)(Regggiani) does with his still attractive suspect (or is it the other way about?). There are plenty of funny scenes and some witty lines. (...) Objections: There are not enough scenes where Reggiani and Morgan are together".

From the 1970s on, she concentrated on painting, designing ties and writing poems. As a painter, she has had several successful exhibitions in Paris. She established her own tie label, 'Cravats Michèle Morgan', in the late 1970s. In 1977, she published her autobiography 'Avec ces yeux-là (With Those Eyes). In the 1980s and 1990s, she also appeared in different TV films and miniseries. Michèle Morgan was named Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honour) in 1969, and she was made an Officer of the Ordre national du Mérite (French National Order of Merit) in 1975. Morgan also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And in 1992, she was given an Honorary César Award for her long service to the French cinema.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 39. Photo: Star.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1009. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Z K, no. 1937.


Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, Milano, no. 72.


German postcard by ISV, no. B 15. Photo: MGM.


Trailer for Les Orgueilleux / The Proud Ones (Yves Allégret, 1953). Source: Plamen Plamenov (YouTube).


Trailer for The Vintage (1957). Source: Luis Peix (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), DB DuMonteil (IMDb), Wikipedia, AllMovie, and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 31 October 2025.

Michèle Morgan (1920-2016), Part 1

Today, French actress Michèle Morgan (1920-2016) has died. The classic blonde beauty has been one of her country's most popular leading ladies for over five decades. The delicate, sophisticated, and detached star was especially noted for her large, expressive eyes. Tomorrow follows part two of this post.


French postcard by Greff S.E.R.P. Editeur, Paris, no. 4. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 71. Photo: Studio Piaz.


French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil, no. 571. Photo: Discina, Paris.


French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil, no. 571 (?).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 16. Photo: Universal.


French postcard by Editions P.I., La Garenne-Colombes, no. 133. Photo: GIBE.

Gloomy allure

Michèle Morgan was born as Simone Renée Roussel in 1920 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Michèle has three younger brothers. Her father was a departmental head in an export house of fragrances. After the crisis of 1929, he found himself unemployed and relocated the family from the wealthy Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine to Dieppe in Upper Normandy.

It was at the Dieppe Casino that Michèle began to attend stage shows and became enamoured with the idea of acting. At 15, she left home with her younger brother Paul, to pursue an acting career in Paris. There, she began her career working as an extra. Through a casting agency, she won a bit role in Mademoiselle Mozart / Meet Miss Mozart (Yvan Noé, 1935) starring Danielle Darrieux.

The film's director, Yvan Noé, suggested she perfect her acting technique by taking lessons. With her salary for small roles in films like Une fille à papa / A Daughter for Father (René Guissart, 1935) with Josette Day, she paid for drama classes. Morgan studied acting under René Simon and chose the pseudonym of Michèle Morgan, taking it from the Morgan Bank in Paris.

She was soon noticed by director Marc Allégret, who offered her a major role in the comedy Gribouille (1937), opposite the great French actor Raimu. Then came Orage (Marc Allégret, 1938) with Charles Boyer, the classic romantic crime drama Le Quai des brumes / Port of Shadows (Marcel Carné, 1938) opposite Jean Gabin and Michel Simon, and Remorques (Jean Grémillon, 1941) again opposite Jean Gabin.

These films established Michèle Morgan as one of the leading actresses of the time in French cinema. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Her remote, enigmatic features and gloomy allure had audiences comparing her to a young Greta Garbo."


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 5. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Viny, no. 16. Photo: Film Osso. Publicity still for Marcel Carné's classic film Quai des brûmes / Port of Shadows (1938).


French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris / Saint Dié, no. CF 49. Photo: Eugen Schüfftan / Louis Page. Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan in Le Quai des Brumes / Port of Shadows (Marcel Carné, 1938).


French postcard by Viny, no. 29. Photo: Star.


French postcard by Edition Ross, no. F15. Photo: Intran-Studio.


French postcard by Edition Ross, no. F17. Photo: Intran-Studio. Collection: Marlène Pilaete.

So-so reception in the USA

Upon the invasion of France in 1940 by the Germans, Michèle Morgan left for the United States. However, she had already been offered her contract with RKO before the start of WW2. She married American actor/singer William Marshall in 1942. Their son Mike Marshall (1944-2005) later became an actor in both France and Hollywood.

Morgan started to work for RKO. She was considered for the role of Lina in Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941), but was soon passed over since her English wasn't deemed good enough. The role went to Joan Fontaine, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Morgan then worked hard to perfect her English, and for an entire year, she saw a linguistic coach for several hours a day and improved considerably.

Morgan's first Hollywood film became Joan of Paris (Robert Stevenson, 1942), co-starring RKO leading man Paul Henreid. It would be her only American hit. Her Hollywood adventure proved to be disappointing. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Her eventual move to Hollywood was based purely on her European prestige, but she did not stand out among the other female foreign imports of that time, such as Ingrid Bergman."

Nothing major came her way apart from rather routine sultry roles amid WWII surroundings. A disaster was her part in the musical Higher and Higher (Tim Whelan, 1943), starring Jack Haley and Frank Sinatra. Morgan had no prior singing experience and was supposed to take a few lessons as quickly as possible.

Morgan was considered for the role of Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), but her studio, RKO, wouldn't release her for the amount of money Warner Bros was offering, and Ingrid Bergman was cast instead. Later, she did make with director Curtiz and Humphrey Bogart the film Passage to Marseille (Michael Curtiz, 1944), but it was far less successful than Casablanca. Her last American film was the Film Noir The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946), based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich and starring Robert Cummings.

After the so-so reception for her American films, Michèle Morgan returned to France. In her autobiography 'Avec ces yeux-là' (With Those Eyes, 1977), she tells an ominous anecdote about her house in Hollywood. She had a house built at 10050 Cielo Drive, slightly isolated from the other star mansions. Michèle was scared at the thought of staying alone at the place and claimed that she often heard sinister noises. She decided to move in with her new husband, William Marshall. In 1969, the house became the site of Sharon Tate's murder by the followers of Charles Manson.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1940. Photo: Colosseum Film.


Dutch postcard by S. & v. H. A. Photo: M.P.E.A.


French postcard by Editions P.I., La Garenne-Colombes, no. 133. Photo: GIBE.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 208. Photo: Universal.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 1939.


British postcard in the Star Souvenir Series by Jarrold and Sons, Ltd, Norwich, no. 61. Photo: London Films. Publicity still for Maria Chapdelaine (Marc Allégret, 1950).

With those eyes

At home in France, Michèle Morgan was treated much better than in Hollywood. She received the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her touching performance as the blind heroine in La symphonie pastorale (Jean Delannoy, 1946) with Pierre Blanchar. She then appeared in the British thriller The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed, 1948) opposite Ralph Richardson.

Next, she moved to Italy for Fabiola (Alessandro Blasetti, 1949). After several years of wartime austerity, the Italian film industry returned to the Peplum, the sand and sandals spectacle. Morgan played the title role, the daughter of a Roman aristocrat (Michel Simon), during the takeover by Emperor Constantine. As a reaction to Constantine's Christian conversion policy, many old-line Romans are persecuting the city's Christian community, killing the believers off before Constantine marches into town. Fabiola is loyal to her Christian-sympathising father but is irresistibly drawn to a Roman gladiator (Henri Vidal).

Privately, she was also drawn to Vidal. During the shooting of the film, she secretly began a relationship with her co-star. At the time, her marriage to William Marshall was already falling to pieces. Marshall, who wished to gain custody of their son, hired some private detectives to follow Morgan's moves and eventually managed to have her photographed in bed with Henri Vidal. Morgan therefore lost custody of Mike due to adultery. In 1950, Vidal and Morgan married.

In 1950, she also appeared in Maria Chapdelaine / The Naked Heart (Marc Allegret, 1950). Adaptor and director Allegret fashioned the novel by Louis Hemon into a vehicle for his successful discovery. Morgan played a young woman whose romantic fantasies begin spilling over into actuality. The film's novelty value is its setting: a remote village in Northern Canada. Filmed simultaneously in French and English-language versions, The Naked Heart was produced independently on a tiny budget. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "While the seams begin to show towards the end, for the most part the film works."


French postcard by EPC, no. 175.


French postcard by C.M.B., no. 500.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 112. Photo: Star.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 365. Photo: Sam Lévin, Paris.


French postcard by Editions P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 80. Photo: Qibé. Publicity still for Aux yeux du souvenir / To the Eyes of Memory (Jean Delannoy, 1948) with Jean Chevrier and Jean Marais.


French postcard in the Collection Magie Noire by Éditions Hazan, Paris, 1988, no. 6009. Photo: Sam Lévin. Jean Marais and Michèle Morgan in Aux yeux du souvenir / Nightstop in Dakar (Jean Delannoy, 1948).

To be continued tomorrow.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Wikipedia, AllMovie, and IMDb.

This page was last updated on 31 October 2025.