Drôle de drame ou L'étrange aventure du Docteur Molyneux (1937)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Marcel Carné

Writers:

J. Storer Clouston (novel) and
Jacques Prévert (adaptation)

Release Date:

20 March 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A French farce set in Victorian London where a botanist and his wife get into trouble when they pretend to go missing in order to hide from their sanctimonious cousin -- an Anglican bishop who is leading a campaign against such writing.

Plot Keywords:

Bishop | Farce | Cult Comedy | Murder | Serial Killer

Cast

Louis Jouvet	...	Archibald Soper, l'évêque de Bedford
Françoise Rosay	...	Margaret Molyneux
Michel Simon	...	Irwin Molyneux, alias Felix Chapel
Jean-Pierre Aumont	...	Billy, le laitier
Jean-Louis Barrault	...	William Kramps
Nadine Vogel	...	Eva
Pierre Alcover	...	L'inspecteur Bray (as Alcover)
Henri Guisol	...	Buffington, le journaliste
Agnès Capri	...	La chanteuse des rues
René Génin	...	Le balayeur (as Génin)
Ky Duyen	...	L'hôtelier chinois
Marcel Duhamel	...	Un fêtard
Jeanne Lory	...	La tante McPhearson
Madeleine Suffel	...	Victory
Jenny Burnay	...	Madame Pencil

Also Known As:

Bizarre, Bizarre (USA)
Drôle de drame (France) (short title)
Funny Drama or The Strange Adventures of Doctor Molyneaux (International: English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

94 min | USA:84 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16 (nf)

Filming Locations:

Studios Joinville, Joinville-le-pont, Val-de-Marne, France

Company:

Productions Corniglion-Molinier

Trivia:

Shot in 23 days.

Quotes:

The Bishop: Moi j'ai dit bizarre, bizarre ? Comme c'est étrange... Pourquoi aurais-je dit bizarre, bizarre ?
Molyneux (Michel Simon): Je vous assure, cher cousin, que vous avez dit bizarre, bizarre.
The Bishop: Moi j'ai dit bizarre ? Comme c'est bizarre...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Un compositeur pour le cinéma: Maurice Jaubert (1985)

Soundtrack:

Complainte

Farce meets screwball in charming curio

A huge international hit in the 30s, I suspect this seems a bit too labored and artificial now to quite captivate a modern audience the way, say, Children of Paradise still does. But the fan of 30s cinema (Marx Brothers and Carole Lombard division) will find lots to like in the collision of disparate styles-- screwball motivations (Barrault plays a besotted madman worthy of Mischa Auer) and Feydeau-farce complications (I won't spoil the delightful way in which Simon, having absconded from home and suspected of a nonexistent murder, is immediately forced to return to his house in disguise); a supposed proper Englishness (the mania for detective tales and the orderly reality beneath them) seen through thoroughly French eyes (which means that mad Gallic passion roils just below the surface). And if you know French cinema, the cast is its own reward-- stern Jouvet, as an increasingly irrational and surreal-acting clergyman, versus shambling Simon (reportedly they hated each other, in any case the clash of styles is perfect), Rosay (of Carnival in Flanders), the handsome Aumont and, most surprisingly, Barrault in an energetically black- comic role 180 degrees from his winsome mime in Children of Paradise. (Note on availability: So far as I know there's no good version of this on tape in the US but there is a very good subtitled French DVD, region 2 only of course.)