La collection Ménard

An Indochinese orphan (played by the lovely Foun-Sen) comes to Paris in search of the man she believes to be her father. All she knows about him is that his name is Paul Ménard, so she goes through the phone book with the intention of visiting the whole "collection" of Paul Ménards in Paris.

And an odd collection they are, too. It feels like every French character actor of the period was drafted in to do a comic turn in this film. So here we have Lucien Baroux as an eccentric museum curator, Marguerite Moreno as an eccentric author, Pierre Larquey as a mad doctor, Robert Le Vigan as a crazy old man, Jean Tissier, Suzy Prim...

Episodic stories like this can work very well with a decent script and believable performances. See, for example Duvivier's Un carnet de bal. But here, each character seems to have stepped straight out of a lunatic asylum, or a French stage farce. Only Foun-Sen brings a sense of realism and genuine emotion to the piece. Unfortunately, too many of her scenes find her paired with the exasperating Lucien Baroux, a deservedly forgotten comic actor of the time. Only completists of French Occupation cinema should add this one to their collection.