Salaperäinen rakastaja

Pierre Dux is an inventor of toys and games who has been trying for decades to have that big breakthrough. He's sustained by his wife, Danielle Darrieux, and his daughter, Sylvie Vartan. His friend since childhood is Jean Marais, who calls him "Spud" and is married to billionaire Anne Vernon. Marais is carrying on an affair with Miss Vartan.

And thus we have a big fat French farce, of the door-slamming variety, except they don't make as satisfying a noise as Dux finds the few certainties in his life ebbing away. He feels he has never had luck, that Marais has had it aplenty, and here he is, destroying that little.

Marais had been a major star for decades, and here he is, looking like a Venetian mask of his good looks of twenty years earlier. Dux is fine in the sort of shouty role that it's all too easy to imagine, say Louis de Funes in. Miss Darrieux is charming and gracious. The result is an enjoyable 80 minutes.