Battement de coeur (1940)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Henri Decoin

Writers:

Michel Duran (dialogue)
Max Kolpé (screenplay)

Release Date:

1940 (Turkey)

Plot Keywords:

Pickpocket

Cast

Danielle Darrieux	...	Arlette
Claude Dauphin	...	Pierre de Rougemont
André Luguet	...	L'ambassadeur - Comte d'Argay
Junie Astor	...	L'ambassadrice - Comtesse d'Argay
Charles Dechamps	...	Le baron Dvorak
Roger Blin
Sylvain Itkine	...	Le premier voleur
Pierre Feuillère	...	Le second voleur
Jean Hébey	...	Ponthus
Julien Carette	...	Yves Calubert (as Carette)
Jean Tissier	...	Roland Médeville
Saturnin Fabre	...	Aristide

Also Known As:

Beating Heart (International: English title)

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16

Company:

Ciné-Alliance

Movie Connections:

Alternate language version of Batticuore (1939)

Round Midnight

Some six years after this early wartime release Sam Wood remade it with Ginger Rogers and succeeded in snatching a suet pudding from the jaws of a souffle. There's nothing terribly new or innovative in the Cinderella story and this Henri Decoin-Danielle Darrieux husband-and-wife entry came hot on the heels of the great Billy Wilder script 'Midnight' in which the penniless Claudette Colbert was taken under the wing of John Barrymore and introduced into Society. This time around Danielle Darrieux, who hasn't got change of a match when we see her first, enrols in Saturnin Fabre's Fagin-style school for thieves which leads directly to a meeting with an Ambassador which in turn leads to Society where Claude Dauphin is waiting to fall in love with the charming waif turned thief. It's all pure fluff, of course, but it's also all in the wrists and, it has to be said, French wrists have more style than those at Sunset and Vine. Basil Rathbone was a considerable actor in anyone's book in addition to being the finest swordsman - in the original meaning of the word - in Hollywood but compared to Saturnin Fabre he finishes a bad nowhere. It's highly unlikely that this gem will be screened outside a Festival of Classic French Films so the best that most buffs can do is lobby their local Art House. 8/10