This is a bizarre portmanteau movie ;although it begins with a roundup in Paris at night ,and although it entirely takes place in a police station ,it is not a detective story .The arrested persons and the gendarmes tell stories to pass the time :thus the four tales ,none of which but the last one,which is rather a spoof on detective stories .
A semi-tramp " La Pintade " tells a teenager who has run away how good it is to have a father,so...
Segment one :"Simon's papa" ; in a small village in the nineteenth century ,all schoolboys mock at little Simon and call him names because he 's got no dad ;his mom(Blanchette Brunoy) is a unwed mother and at the time it was a shame !One day the boy saw a drowned man who seemed quiet and heard a person say "now he is happy".So he tries to commit suicide but a good blacksmith saves him in the nick of time (based on a famous Maupassant short story ,it's told with a great simplicity)
An unemployed girl dreams of another life and tells the story of one of her friends who got lucky ,so ....
Segment two :"Gary (sorry Freddy) Cooper" : a girl dreams of Hollywood ;when an American movie star comes to Paris,she (kindly) blackmails him and manages to marry him .Silly story,badly acted .
A would be baron accused of jewels theft by a (true) aristocrat (Jean Tissier) has become misogynist ,so.....
Segment three :"only one woman";also based on a Maupassant short story ,it deals with a womanizer who falls for a girl,Yvette ,who dies of pneumonia;afterward,he will have affairs ,but without love .Boring.
It's the gendarme's turn :they tell their tale ,and theirs is the only detective story of the movie.IT's also probably the best and the funniest,so....
Segment four:"like father ,like daughter" A gangster has an affair with a woman who walks out on him and leaves him with a baby girl.As he wants his daughter to be carefully taught,he sends her to a respectable boarding-school ;when she's 12,she makes her solemn communion;as it is cause for celebration,dad takes his girlie to the restaurant :but when they're on to the dessert,she has a little surprise for dad . A good script ,although the communion scene was probably inspired by Maupassant's "La Maison Tellier";the daughter resembles "little house" 's Nellie Oleson.
The "prisoners" are released at daybreak ,two of them have found love .
