La merveilleuse journée

This is a remake of a silent movie made four years before .Robert Wyler (yes, it's William's brother) co-directed it with Yves Mirande .He would do three films in all ,here, another one co-directed by Carol Reed .At the time William Wyler had a dozen of movies under his belt and it would not take long before Robert joined his sibling in Hollywood.

Now for the movie: it's a pleasant unpretentious comedy,with colorful characters :set in the south of France , on Marcel Pagnol's territory it tells the story of an assistant -pharmacist (Frederic Duvalles ) who is his boss's big fat wife 's lover,willy-nilly ,in the stockroom ,full of naphtaline smell .The doctor (Alerme),imitating Docteur Knock ,with a little help from the pharmacist ,has turned a millionaire,Fellou ,who lives on his yacht ,into an imaginary sick man and they sell tons of medicines to him .

Both men ( the lover,sick and tired of this authoritarian missus and the wealty man ,fed up with his cure) decide to leave for a marvelous day in a chic seaside resort ; the beaches are overcrowded ,but in the casinos , you can win a fortune ,...and lose it within the following hour .

The assistant pharmacist does not know the name of the game in these gambling places and his naivete leads him from rags to riches ,and then the other way around .The scenes in the casino drag on a little, but his return ,with a would be chauffeur ,and his burdensome mistress is still waiting for him ;only the vicar can come between them ,and if she confesses her sin to him ,he won't be allowed to talk about it...

Not much food for thought ,but much fun!