During the stagecoach trip of a frightened group of inhabitants of Rouen, Elisabeth Rousset, known as "Boule de Suif", renders these people a signal service, but comes up against their stupidity and their sufficiency. A little later, Boule de Suif assassinates the formidable Prussian lieutenant...
The struggles of a small business owner come to light in this film by director André Cayatte. The proprietor of a fabric shop, M. Baudu faces stiff competition when a department store moves in across the street, the first of its kind in 1860s Paris. On top of the stresses associated with the rival...
Aimé Morin, a good-natured bookseller, is also one of the candidates in the local elections of his small town. He is well-liked by most but he also has political enemies. Among them is Lagarde, a journalist close to the latter. Lagarde takes advantage of Morin being on holiday in Paris to try and...
The young Countess Rita wishes to visit the slums of Paris. A matchmaker decides to arrange for her a little staging that allows the young dazed to believe that she has really spent an evening among the men in the middle. Things go wrong through the fault of a genuine apache.
Gilbert, poet and singer, is about to marry Lilette but deep inside himself he is not quite sure that she is the woman he needs. That is the reason why he has made up an imaginary woman, Frédérica" to whom he writes love letters, actual ones this time. When Lilette finds one of these, she sees...
Domino has only a wooden statuette, a typical piece of African art, to show for his trip. Arriving in Paris, Domino phones the famous Heller galleries to try to sell his statuette. He gets Heller’s wife, who uses him to deflect the suspicions of her jealous husband: she had an affair before their...
A man from a wealthy family falls in love with a florist, but the lover has to go to war and to leave his darling crying... and giving birth to a child.
Rejecting the union of her daughter Brigitte with a modest worker, Madame Magnin invents an adultery for the lover, then introduces Brigitte to a good-looking man working on the famous RTF entertainment show 36 Chandelles. The show ultimately seals the reunion of the two estranged young lovers. The...
Sophie Mallet is the lively manager of a detective agency, assisted by Emile Gachit, her conscientious but not very effective right-hand man. One day a fellow named David entrusts her a pack of cigarettes that she is supposed to hand over to a certain John Smith. But David soon disappears while...
The Provence, somewhere in the 1950's. Paul Verdier, traveling salesman, leaves his home and his quarrelsome wife for his weekly round. On the train he meets a young woman, Marie, who looks a little lost. No wonder. Marie is pregnant but lacks the customary husband. She's returning to her village...
Unable to go to America where he dreamed of making his fortune, Ulysse Sylvain decided to apply the methods that had been successful across the Atlantic to his parents' village. He posed as a buisinessman, won the confidence of the notables and transformed the village in the American style,...
Max and Colette often bother the lawyer Vermorel to initiate divorce proceedings, then everything calms down. An anonymous letter escalates the disputes, it borders on disaster but living together has obvious charms.
Marceline, the young wife of the florist Jean, can't help flirting with other men, but her brother Clo-Clo takes the poor husband's side against his sister.
A young botanist, an Englishwoman and her daughter are prisoners of a group of bandits operating in the mountains of Albania. A ransom is demanded. The capture of the gang leader's daughter, however, brings the situation to a happy conclusion.
Charles Vigne, a wealthy banker, frees Abdul, a good genius imprisoned in a vase. To thank him, Abdul grants his wish: to become a child again, while retaining the experience he has acquired. But the "disappearance" of the banker panics the financial markets and has disastrous consequences for the...