Word: gabin
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Marie du Port (Bellon-Foulke International) is a rueful French comedy relating, with De Maupassant relish, the unequal struggle between a middle-aged roue (Jean Gabin) and an innocent young barmaid (Nicole Courcel), who is the young sister of his mistress. While his mistress attends her father's funeral in a Breton fishing village, Gabin idles about the town, casts a speculative eye on a boat which is for sale and on the barmaid who is not. Both boat and barmaid bring him back to tiny Port-au-Bessein, but he is unable to enjoy either: the boat...
...strategic withdrawal, Gabin retires to Cherbourg, where he owns a cafe and movie house, but the barmaid and complications follow him. Finally, Gabin packs his mistress off to Paris, gets the despairing young man a job as hairdresser on the Queen Mary and, happily resigned, leads the still-virtuous barmaid to the altar...
...from experience to experience, is the film's apparent theme. This theme is all the more potent because it is superbly documented. The shots of Genoa are fine, and the Genoa citizenry which moves naturally through its city adds to the film's authenticity. The acting is excellent: Jean Gabin is convincingly weary and revived as the Frenchman; Isa Miranda is appropriately tender and brave as the woman who revives him and who finds satisfaction amidst poverty; and Vera Talchi is very good as her canny 11-year-old daughter...
...proceeds from tonight's showing of "Grand illusion," the pre-war French film with Eric Von Stroheim and Jean Gabin, will be donated to the College DP student fund by the Liberal Union. Showings of the film, which has English sub-titles, will be at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in Fogg Museum...
...Although it also has a masterful plot, perhaps the finest parts of "Grand Illusion" are a few individual scenes. For instance, on the eve of a German victory celebration, the prisoners give a revue and invite the German officers who are guarding them. In the middle of the show, Gabin hears the news the Allies have finally won this battle. He rushes on the stage, roars out the good news, and all the prisoners rise and sing the "Marsaillaise." The German officers stomp out, and Gabin is put into solitary confinement...