Arletty made three movies in 1938 but one of them was Hotel du Nord which means that the other two - and this was one of them - got lost in the shuffle. It's beyond dispute that the four finest films she made were that quartet with Marcel Carne at the helm - Hotel du Nord, Le Jour se leve, Les Visiteurs du soir and Les Enfants du paradis - but it would be foolish as well as wrong to dismiss her other films as chopped liver. This one, for example boasts not only one of the finest French actresses of all time in Arletty but also probably THE finest French Character actress in Marguerite Moreno who all but wipes the floor with Michel Simon and that's not easy given that Simon himself was up there with Jean Gabin (they appeared together in Quai des Brumes in this very same year) in terms of great French actors. The light-hearted plot sees Simon as an Egyptologist on his way home to France and plagued by the attentions of Moreno, who is obsessed with him. His wife, who was the mother of his child, Gilbert, now 18, is long dead and Simon has become embroiled with three women since then all of whom feel over possessive toward Gilbert who, as our story opens, has just attempted suicide due to the fickle feelings of a cabaret artist. There isn't much more to it but it's well played by all hands including Gabrielle Dorziat, Francis Perier and Pierre Larquy among others. Director Jean Boyer was responsible for some 60 plus movies most of which are forgotten but most of which are certainly worth a look or, as in this case, more than one.
Review of La chaleur du sein
