Forbidden Fruit (1952)
"Le fruit défendu" (original title)

A doctor in southern France takes a mistress but lives to regret it.

Director:

Henri Verneuil

Writers:

Georges Simenon (novel), Jacques Companéez (adaptation),

Stars:

Fernandel, Françoise Arnoul, Jacques Castelot

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Fernandel	...	Dr. Charles Pellegrin
Françoise Arnoul	...	Martine Englebert
Jacques Castelot	...	Boquet, le propriétaire du 'Poker bar'
René Génin	...	Dr. Marchandeau
Fernand Sardou	...	Fontvielle
Pierrette Bruno	...	Toinette
Manuel Gary	...	Jacky
Max Dalcourt
Odette Charblay
Mireille Ponsard
Micheline Gary	...	Lea
Hélène Tossy	...	Mme Rochemaure (as Hélène Tossis)
Jacques Gencel	...	Justin (as Jacky Gencel)
Yannick Malloire	...	Une fillette du docteur / Pellegrin's daughter (as Yanick Malloire)
Marie Martine	...	Une fillette du docteur

Storyline

Charles Pellegrin, 40-year-old country doctor, buys a practice in Arles, a provincial town near Marseille. In five years, he has a large practice and a lovely (but more efficient than passionate) wife, when he meets spectacularly sexy, sensuous Martine, who seduces him. Soon, he's honoring that old French custom of keeping a mistress. At first Martine brings romance, then passion into his life...then black jealously and despair.

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Plot Keywords:

arles | provence | adultery | based on novel

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

21 February 1959 (USA)

Also Known As:

Forbidden Fruit

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gray-Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

User Reviews

a very well played classic story

"Le fruit défendu" (= French for "the forbidden fruit") deals with an all too familiar theme: a man aged 45, locked up in his marriage, fatherhood and profession, gets involved with a much younger girl.

Set in the early fifties in the South of France, the predictability of this film's story is more than compensated by both Fernanadel's and Arnoul's excellent acting.

These two leads treat us to some fine human nuances. For instance, how their affair's development is favored by the wife's cold ambition to keep up with high society -- leaving much of her husband's genuine feelings towards her unanswered in the process.

Also fascinating is the mix between the young girl's passion and calculation. And how the latter gradually takes over with the progress of their affair.

But for Fernandel's and Arnoul's play, this film would have been forgotten for a long time.