Drole de Drame
by Marcel Carné
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Françoise Rosay, Jean-Louis Barrault, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Michel SimonDirector: Marcel Carné
Cinematographer: Eugen Schüfftan
Editor: Marthe Poncin
Producer: Edouard Corniglion-Molinier
Writer: J. Storer Clouston
Writer: Jacques Prévert
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 84 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-29
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Homevision
Movie Reviews of Drole de Drame
Movie Review: Droll, indeed; a terrific combination of complicated farce and social pretensions, expertly acted
Summary: 5 Stars
If you think French farce is something you'll gladly pass by, consider Drole de Drame. Among other things, the film includes a vegetarian serial killer who disembowels butchers, a bishop of the Church of England who'd have God praying for forgiveness within 30 seconds, a professor of botany whose two loves are mimosas and carnivorous plants, as well as an imposing wife, a delectable maid and a milkman who delivers endless bottles of milk. "A Droll Drama, or the Strange Adventures of Professor Molyneux" takes place in Edwardian England, and may be best described for American viewers as a combination of Preston Sturges, French sophistication, the Marx Brothers, slapstick comedy and social pretensions. The film was written by Jacques Prevert and directed by Marcel Carne, who later collaborated on two classics of cinema (not just French cinema), Quais des Brunes and Children of Paradise.
Professor Irwin Molyneux (Michel Simon) is a bumbling, meek, henpecked man who loves his mimosas. His wife is the formidable Margaret Molyneux (Francoise Rosay), who is fully aware of their social status. The professor's dear cousin is Archibald Soper, the Bishop of Bedford, a man full of sanctimonious certitude who rails against "the cult of tawdry literature," namely, detective stories. "Detective Novel Readers are Future Murderers" says one banner where the bishop is preaching. The worst example of all is Felix Chapel, author of the hugely popular "The Perfect Crime." As we shortly find out, Professor Molyneux is actually the fictitious Felix Chapel, and no one knows this except his wife and Eva, their maid. Molyneux and his cousin heartily dislike each other and Margaret Molyneux can't stand the bishop. When Soper invites himself to dinner one evening (the cook already has left in a huff), Margaret agrees to cook the bishop's favorite, duck in orange sauce (the bishop takes two helpings), but refuses to make an appearance. The suspicious bishop, naturally enough, believes that Professor Molyneux has murdered his wife. When Professor Molyneux makes up some story about his wife having measles and has gone to visit friends, or is it that the friends have measles, the Bishop looks at the knife in his hand and says, "Bizarre, bizarre." "What is the matter," Molyneux asks. "With what?" "Your knife." "In what way?" Soper asks. "You looked at your knife and said 'Bizarre, bizarre,' so I thought... " "I said 'Bizarre bizarre'? How bizarre. Why would I have said, 'Bizarre, bizarre'?" "I assure you, my dear cousin," Molyneux says, "that you said 'Bizarre bizarre'." "Did I say 'Bizarre'? How bizarre..." The bishop decides to stay overnight, and later he calls Scotland Yard...
...and causes more mistaken identities, more coincidences and more conflicting motives than you can shake your head head. Not the least is that the butcher butcherer, William Kramps, blames his obsession all on Felix Chapel, and is determined to do to Chapel what he does to butchers. Mixed in with all the ridiculous situations is an underlying look at the pretensions of maintaining social status. The movie may be a terrifically engaging piece of nonsense, but there is enough middle class social satire to give the film a real edge.
Farce may depend on straight-faced situations and clever dialogue, but farce lives or dies on the skill of the actors. Drole de Drame is remarkable in the cast of extraordinary actors Carne put together. Michel Simon, big and shambling, is one of the slyest of actors, and one of the most nearly impossible to upstage. One of his great roles is as Boudu in Renoir's Boudu Saved from Drowning. Louis Jouvet, dressed in black, tall and lean with squinting, suspicious eyes, is immensely amusing. He hated films and only took on roles to pay for his life on stage. He and Simon detested each other as much as the characters they play do. Francoise Rosay as Margaret Molyneux moves through the film with complete assurance in her social status, yet she is so easily flattered into coy behavior. And Jean-Louis Barrault, that great actor who made his film reputation as the sensitive mime in Children of Paradise, is a revelation as William Kramps. He's a mad killer with the comedy timing of Bob Hope. "Life is so strange," he says to a nervous Molyneux, who is pretending to be a real-life Chapel. "Some people I see only once. I look at them. They're alive. And when I leave, they're dead." Kramps may be the only person in the film who is not concerned with social position.
The film, released by Home Vision Entertainment, looks very good. There are no extras. Useful liner notes are included in the DVD case.
Summary of Drole de Drame
From the creators of Children of Paradise comes a screwball comedy about a vegetarian serial killer. When the Archbishop of Bedford suspects his eccentric cousin of poisoning his wife and disposing of the body, he sets off a wild and uproarious series of events spurred on by an upper-class disdain of scandal. A wonderful farce set in Edwardian London, this decidedly French comedy owes more to artifice and comic twists of plot reminiscent of René Clair and films like Le Million than the tragic pessimism found in the later work of Carné and Prévert such as Quai des Brumes or Children of Paradise.As its title suggests, Drôle de Drame is a very droll drama indeed. It's a farce, to be specific, deftly handled by director Marcel Carné and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, eight years before the release of their masterpiece, Children of Paradise. Surprisingly, this was the only box-office flop of Carné's early career, later recognized as a classic ahead of its time, comparable to American screwball comedy but subtler in wit and delivery. Set in Edwardian London and illustrating the absurd lengths that the social elite will go to preserve their privileged status, it follows the exploits of M. Molyneux (Michel Simon), who's accused of murdering his wife by his cousin (Louis Jouvet), a self-righteous bishop who denounces popular crime novels written by... well, it's best not to give too much away. Plot twists, romance, and an elegant parade of comedic circumstances make Drôle de Drame a real treat for Anglophiles, Francophiles, and cinephiles alike. No wonder critic Pauline Kael called it "Dadaist frivolity, with sequences one giggles over happily for years." --Jeff Shannon
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