Le Dernier Milliardaire [The Last Billionaire] *** (1934, Max Dearly, Sinoël, Paul Ollivier, Renée Saint-Cyr, Marthe Mellot) – Classic Movie Review 10,612

The 1934 French comedy film Le Dernier Milliardaire [The Last Billionaire] is writer-director René Clair’s political satire about a bankrupt principality’s ruler, La Reine de Casinario (Marthe Mellot), who gets the world’s richest banker, Banco (Max Dearly), to romance her daughter Princess Isabelle (Renée Saint-Cyr). But the princess runs off with a musician and the financier turns out to be insane or phony after an accidental bump to the brain.

Le Dernier Milliardaire is an attractive, often amusing Thirties French comedy from a master film-maker, even if the jokes are very hit and miss. This kind of broad farcical comedy was not really Clair’s forte.

In Paris there were reportedly riots against it at the time by Fascists who thought it unpatriotic.

Sinoël plays Le premier Ministre, Paul Ollivier plays the Chamberlain, Charles Redgie plays Crown Prince Nicolas, Marcel Carpentier plays Detective Brown, Raymond Cordy plays the Valet, and José Noguéro plays the Band Leader.

Le Dernier Milliardaire [The Last Billionaire] is directed by René Clair, runs 92 minutes, is made by Pathé-Natan, is released by Pathé-Natan (1934) (France) and France Films (1935) (US), is written by René Clair, is shot in black and white by Rudolph Maté and Louis Née, is produced by Bernard Natan, and is scored by Maurice Jaubert, with Art Direction by Lucien Aguettand and Lucien Carré.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,612

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