Mademoiselle Fifi

This is a very interesting film directed by a very famous Hollywood Director, Robert Wise,"The Sound of Music","West Side Story" and many other famous films. This is a gem of a 1944 film starring Simone Simon, (Elizabeth Bousset),"The Curse of the Cat People" who plays the role of a young French Laundress who shares a coach ride during the Franco-Prussian War with some very important social superiors. These so called social superiors thought themselves better than Elizabeth, however, when they forgot to bring any food supplies on their journey, she furnished them with chicken she had prepared for herself and things changed. Kurt Kreuger, (Lt. Von Eyrick) is a Prussian soldier who tries to hit on Elizabeth and stops all the travelers from going on their journey until poor Elizabeth complies with his wishes. Jason Roboards,Sr., (Wholesaler in Wines) gave a great supporting role along with John Emery, (Jean Cornudet) who comes to the aid of Elizabeth along with a Priest who will not ring the church bells of his Parish in defiance of the Prussian Generals. Great Classic Film.

SIMONE SIMON, who gained so much fame from her "Cat People" persona and a subsequent film called "Curse of the Cat People", appears here in an uneven costume drama adapted from two Guy DeMaupassant stories about class differences at the time of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and a young woman who has to assert herself when the going gets rough. She shows spirit in her offbeat role and the cast is a good one, featuring JOHN EMERY, ALAN NAPIER, KURT KREUGER and JASON ROBARDS, SR.

The coach scene that takes up the first twenty minutes or so of the story is reminiscent of "Stagecoach" in which the characters behave snobbishly toward Claire Trevor, as the prostitute with a heart of gold. Here it's SIMONE SIMON as a laundress with her own sense of pride, refusing to deal with the Prussians or Germans on any level, not even willing to do their laundry. Only when she offers food and drink to the other passengers, do they begin to find any good in her, at least temporarily.

Her loyalty to France makes her resist the request of the Prussian officer, KURT KREUGER, to dine with them when the passengers must stay over at an inn. The other passengers get together and force her to humble her patriotism for the sake of letting them go on with their journey. She complies and the next day when they resume their journey, the others are ungrateful to her and treat her shabbily again. JOHN EMERY tells them off and leaves the coach to meet up with her. She refuses to accept his apology for not taking a stronger stand in the resistance movement but changes her mind later when he does prove to be heroic.

The resistance message seems to reflect the type of WWII propaganda films Hollywood churned out during this period, but the film is an odd mixture of costume drama and patriotism under fire.

Not exactly a ground breaker, but interesting, especially for fans of Simone Simon's screen persona. Just why this particular story interested Val Lewton, considering his background as a man who preferred making horror films, is not clear to me.

A rare non-horror effort from producer Val Lewton, this is a period film about a patriotic laundress during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Lewton brought along Cat People star Simone Simon and director Robert Wise (who would do two horror films for Lewton, including Curse of the Cat People with Simon). Despite the setting, it's very obviously meant to be about Nazi-occupied France. It's also pretty clear Simon's character was meant to be a prostitute but the Code wouldn't allow that. The way the upper class types look down on her and the stuff about the German officer wanting to "dine" with her and her steadfast refusal over something so minor is indicative that more is going on here than the script is allowed to say outright. Simone's gorgeous as ever. I love her adorable accent. She handles herself well in this often unexciting costumer. The rest of the cast is fine, with Kurt Kreuger a standout as the slimy villain (and the title character). It's a beautiful-looking film with cinematography by Harry Wild. Lewton fans might like to take a look at it but don't expect anything like his atmospheric horror films.

There is a good film waiting to be made out of de Maupassant's story, but this isn't it. (Stagecoach isn't either). We can understand it isn't Lewton and Wise's fault, it's just that the censorship wouldn't allow it to be done properly then.

Thus, the central character gets turned into a laundress, and the climax comes when she... HAS DINNER with the sadistic Prussian officer!! (in the story, she was shunned by her fellow passengers for being a hooker, then she saves the day by going to bed with him)).

Modern directors like Agnieszka Holland or M.L. Bemberg could make a really great movie out of this, but 1940's America was just not the place.

The film,"Mademoiselle Fifi" is a combination of two of Guy de Maupassant's patriotic stories: "Boule de Suif," the story of a patriotic French girl whose love for her country is misunderstood by those with whom she comes in contact; and "Mademoiselle Fifi,", a tale of a sadistic Prussian officer intent on breaking the will of conquered France, who has been nicknamed "Mademoiselle Fifi" by his comrades because of his constant use of the phrase "Fi fi done." The action takes place during the last part of the Franco-Prussian Way, the locale being occupied France from the city of Rouen, headquarters of the German Third Army, to a little village near the unoccupied territory.