Pardon My French (France/U.S., 1952); Headlines of Destruction (Je suis un sentimental) (1955)

August 13, 2014 - 7:30 pm

Billy Wilder Theater

Pardon My French (France/U.S., 1952)

Directed by Bernard Vorhaus.

Part of a short cycle of dual-language Franco-American co-production, Pardon My French features Merle Oberon as a New England schoolmarm who inherits a French chateau run as a home for displaced war orphans by a bohemian musician (Paul Henreid). While the romance that ensues plays out in terms of cultural clichés, the evocation of France’s immediate postwar context reflects the blacklisted exiles’ commitment to social cinema.

Cusick International Films, Inc., Sagitta Films, Jupiter Films. Producer: Peter Cusick, André Sarrut. Screenwriter: Roland Kibbee. Cinematographer: Gerald Gibbs. Editor: Gordon Hales, Derek Armstrong. Cast: Paul Henreid, Merle Oberon, Paul Bonifas.

35mm, b/w, 82 min.

Headlines of Destruction (Je suis un sentimental) (1955)

Directed by John Berry.

Je suis un sentimental marked director John Berry’s second film noir spoof starring Eddie Constantine, the American actor whose popular screen persona—as the hard-boiled detective Lemmy Caution—would later appear in Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville (1965). In a variation on this role, Constantine plays a callous journalist who discovers his conscience, while Berry slips in some class commentary between the wisecracks and action sequences. Tonight we present the English-dubbed version of the film, retitled Headlines of Destruction.

Hoche Productions, Orex Films, Ariel, Carol Film. Screenwriter: John Berry, Lee Gold, Tamara Hovey, Jacques-Laurent Bost, Roland Kibbee. Cinematographer: Jacques Lemare. Editor: Marinette Cadix. Cast: Eddie Constantine, Bella Darvi, Olivier Hussenot

16mm, b/w, 95 min.

Part of:

Hollywood Exiles in Europe

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Pardon My French (France/U.S., 1952); Headlines of Destruction (Je suis un sentimental) (1955)