Fanny ***** (1932, Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin, Alida Rouffé) – Classic Movie Review 6394

Director Marc Allégret’s 1932 French classic is the middle episode in the marvellous Marcel Pagnol Marius trilogy, a highspot of world cinema, following the first film Marius (1931).

Orane Demazis stars as the abandoned pregnant Fanny, whose lover Marius (Pierre Fresnay) has gone to sea, and is now compelled at the prompting of her maman, Honorine (Alida Rouffé), to wed the ancient widowed Panisse (Fernand Charpin). Marius’s father César (Raimu), who runs a Marseilles waterfront bar, is heartbroken.

Again, as with Marius (1931), it is an early sound film with limited techniques and a slight air of artificiality. But Pagnol’s salty dialogue comes over fresh and strong. His temperamental characters are warm and loveable, and the acting (particularly Raimu’s) is just wonderful.

Also in the cast are Robert Vattier, Auguste Mories, Marcel Maupi, Milly Mathis, Odette Roger, Louis Boulle and Edouard Delmont.

It is written by Marcel Pagnol, shot in black and white by Nicholas Toporkoff, Georges Benoit, André Dantan and Roger Hubert, produced by Marcel Pagnol and Roger Richebé, scored by Vincent Scott and designed by Gabriel Scognamilla.

Pagnol himself directed his specially scripted sequel: César (1936).

American remakes: Port of Seven Seas (1938) with Wallace Beery, Frank Morgan, Maureen O’Sullivan and John Beal, and Fanny (1961) with Charles Boyer, Maurice Chevalier, Leslie Caron and Horst Buchholz.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6394

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