Poly

Cécile Aubry was a French actress know for such films as 'Manon' (1949) and 'The Black Rose' (1950). In the late 1950s she began to write children's stories and also at this time made several short films. One of her stories called 'The adventures of Poly' was accepted for television and was made into a black and white, thirteen part, fifteen minutes per episode series. It was aired in France in 1961 under the screen title 'Poly'.

Poly is a cute pony with a blonde mane in a traveling circus. One day the circus arrives at the village of young Pascal. Pascal becomes friends with the mistreated animal and decides to rescue it. Aided by local children he hides his new four-legged pal in the woods and so the adventure begins.

The character of Pascal was played by Aubry's own son Mehdi, who was just four years old at the time. Mehdi turned out to be quite a natural in front of the camera and four years later he would go on to play Sébastien in Aubry's more widely known series 'Belle and Sébastien'. Cécile Aubry directed Poly herself with the support of a small production crew. She wisely set the story in her home village of Saint-Cyr-sous-Dourdan, a picturesque area south of Paris. The cast was mainly made up of local residents, children and amateur actors. They would later be dubbed by professional voice artists. Aubry's local knowledge of the area, (she lived there for almost sixty years) resulted in some good location choices. The rural French countryside is a visual treat. The birds twitter, the children race around, hide Poly in a haystack and are then treated to a ride on top of a hay cart towed by a tractor. It certainly has charm. It reminds me of some of those early British Children's Film Foundation (CFF) productions, with youngsters romping around in fields, scrumping apples and strawberries, letting the air out of the vicar's tyres and stuffing a potato up the exhaust pipe of grumpy old Mrs Tong's Morris 1000.

Cécile Aubry penned numerous Poly stories, nine of which made it onto the television screens. All of them featured Poly becoming involved in various scrapes both in France and around Europe. The cast changed for each show but some actors did appear more than once. I have all of the Poly series in my collection except for Au Secours Poly Au Secours! For some reason this was not released on DVD. Does anyone know if it is on VHS?

The Poly series are listed below in order of transmission.

1961- THE ADVENTURES OF POLY.

13 episodes of 14 minutes.

Director- Cécile Aubry.

1963- LES VACANCES DE POLY.

13 episodes of 14 minutes.

Director- Claude Boissol.

1964- POLY ET LE SECRET DES SEPT ÉTOILES.

13 episodes of 14 minutes.

Director- Claude Boissol.

1965- POLY AU PORTUGAL.

13 episodes of 14 minutes/ 7 episodes of 26 minutes.

Director- Claude Boissol.

1966- AU SECOURS POLY, AU SECOURS!

13 episodes.

Director- Henri Toulout.

1967- POLY ET LE DIAMANT NOIR.

13 episodes of 14 minutes/ 7 episodes of 26 minutes.. Director- Henri Toulout.

1970- POLY A VENISE.

13 episodes. (In colour).

Director- Jacques Pinoteau.

1972- POLY EN ESPAGNE.

13 episodes of 26 minutes. (In colour).

Director- Claude Boissol.

1973- POLY EN TUNISIE.

13 episodes.

Director- Claude Boissol. (In colour).