Julietta (1953)

A young girl (Dany Robin) engaged to marry a Prince (Bernard Lancret) she doesn't love misses her train to Paris while returning a cigarette case to a lawyer (Jean Marais). He reluctantly offers to let her stay the night in his country manor until she can catch the next train to Paris in the morning. She accepts and everything goes crazy from then on. Based on the novel by Louise De Vilmorin and directed by Marc Allegret (LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER). An imperfect mixture of romcom and screwball comedy, French style. It's all done at a frantic pace as befits a farce but its three main characters aren't likable which keeps the viewer at a distance. Normally I find lovely Dany Robin charming but here, she's an irritating and selfish brat. Jean Marais's attorney is a weakling when it comes to strong willed women in his life and as his haughty fiancee, Jeanne Moreau vacillates between a shrill neurotic and a henpecking bitch. It was interesting watching Moreau in the kind of part usually played by Gail Patrick in Hollywood comedies like MY MAN GODFREY and MY FAVORITE WIFE, a sort of female Ralph Bellamy. You'd never guess that just a few years later, she would become one of France's most important actresses. Entertaining up to a point but that point is reached quickly. With Nicole Berger and Georges Chamarat.