Known for Acting
After leaving the prison where they have served their sentence, some criminals plan a new robbery.
Cyprien and his friends Hector Colomb and Annette are penniless and desperate. They need someone to take an interest in them. One day, they decide to become volunteer castaways. To build their raft, they sawed down trees in the Bois de Boulogne. With the support of Caroline Grossac and her mother, they were backed by M. Grossac, a comfortable businessman with a keen sense of publicity. Launched in Saint-Tropez, the raft made only a short crossing. Nevertheless, the new privateers are acclaimed, and the wilful shipwreck business is so successful that it makes Hector and Annette rich, while Cyprien marries Mlle Grossac.
La neige était sale is based on a novel and play by the phenomenally prolific Georges Simenon. Upon learning that his mother was a prostitute, Frank (Daniel Gelin) dejectedly vows that he, too, will live a life of debauchery. Part of his self-degradation program is to kill someone, and since the story takes place during the Nazi occupation of France, he chooses a German officer as his victim. His steady descent into psychosis and depravity becomes his ultimate undoing.
On the run from international police, Special Agent Lemmy Caution arrives in the South of France and soon becomes embroiled in a scheme with the infamous gangster Siegella. Whilst seeming to co-operate with the underworld boss, Lemmy is secretly acting for the FBI, and intends using Miranda Van Zelden, a wealthy heiress, as bait to trap a gang of crooks and put an end to Siegella's exploits...
Caroline de Bienre, the 16-year-old daughter of French nobility, meets the handsome rogue, Gaston de Sallanches, who is expected to ask for the hand of her older, plainer sister in marriage. Gaston instead joins Caroline in her secret hiding place in the château's attic, where the infatuated Caroline begins an affair with him. Meanwhile, she is being courted by the dull, sincere Livio, but holds him off since she is in love with Gaston. When the revolution of 1789 breaks out Caroline is sent to a convent but her carriage is waylaid. She escapes and makes her way to Gaston's home, where she finds him in the arms of his mistress. She is angry and then agrees to marry Livio, now an out-of-favor revolutionary and a marked man, and Caroline is also now on the death list.
Violeta, an Andalusian gypsy, foretells a lady she will become empress. The lady is Eugenia de Montijo, and when she marries emperor Luis Napoleón of France she takes the young girl with her. The empress'cousin readily makes her his focus of attention, then she discovers a criminal attempt against the empress.
A comedic take on the Frankenstein story.
The young Mathilde de Marsan, believes she is in love with a singer, Philippe Mazières, and steals his photo. This one, who had written a song start, searches for this photo as far as the castle of Geoffroy and Estelle de Marsan, where Mathilde's uncle and aunt take him for the husband of one of their guests, Claude Cartier. and will finally marry her while Georges, Claude's ex-fiancé will fall in love with his hosts' niece, Mathilde.
A band of Marseilles, lazy and happy to live, are involved in trafficking; Titin, put in prison for a while, is finally released and can marry Miette.
Napoleon III, the Commune, the third Republic in the background. In the foreground, two pretty, talented sisters, Virginie and Pauline Cardinal. They are ballerinas at the Opera de Paris and very much courted by wealthy, elegant men. They will manage to climb in the society of their time, despite parents set on respectability but also attracted by money.
Schomberg, an enigmatic psychiatrist runs a nursing home. He is forced to close his clinic and disappear to escape the police. But he wants revenge on his wife's lover, Didier Laurent, a former RAF fighter pilot. Didier meets a young trapeze artist, Paula, with whom he falls in love. The happiness of the two young people is disturbed by the assassination of Irene, strangled by Schomberg who casts suspicion on Didier. Fortunately for them Commissioner Ulysses knows the truth and forces Schomberg to commit suicide.
Jacques Mervel, also known as "L'Homme de la Jamaïque" makes use of his talents as a gun runner in Tangiers, Morocco. After triumphing over a rival gang, he decides to quit the job and to start a new life with Vicky, a pretty young nurse. In Paris, a doctor lets him know that he is affected by leprosy. In desperation, Jacques runs away from Vicky to spare her. When she realizes the reason why Jacques has disappeared from her life, she joins him with a view to helping him fight the disease.
