Chéri-Bibi (1955) User Reviews

Fatalitas!

[dbdumonteil · 22 July 2010]

Third version of a less famous Gaston Leroux's novel;unlike "Mystere De La Chambre Jaune " or "phantom of the opera" ,it's no murder mystery.It's a cross between Dumas's "Conte De Monte Cristo" and Maurice Leblanc's "Arsene Lupin" .The director,Marcello Pagliero,forgets his social concerns ("Un Homme Marche Dans La Ville" "La P.......Respectueuse" and gives pure entertainment stuff.

Shot in color ,which in the French fifties was very rare ,"Cheri Bibi" (which roughly means "darling me" )begins with a young busker and a barker telling the beginning of the story and how much fate was hard on our hero.Drawings summarize the first act of the drama,polished off in five minutes.

When the story really begins ,Cheri Bibi is on a not-so-comfortable ship en route to Cayenne chain gang.All that follows is far-fetched to a fault and includes special surgery ,mutiny,imposture and a wife to win back.

Jean Richard plays two parts and he pulls it off with gusto while Raymond Bussieres provides good support as "La Ficelle " ,always at the beck and call of Cheri Bibi

Cherry Baby.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 6 September 2018]

After seeing the plodding Alphaville last night,I got in the mood of moving on from that viewing with a breezy French flick. Checking the reviews of dbdumonteil, I found a flick which sounded so sweet that it would have a cheri on top.

View on the film:

Departing from the "social issues" of his other films, director Marcello Pagliero & cinematographer Mario Montuori leap into a swashbuckling atmosphere of high-seas Adventure,and the dashing, gentlemen thief genres. One of the few French films shot in colour in the mid-50's, Pagliero skilfully compacts the set-up and the closing coda with a young busker and a barker telling Bibi's story in a market square, freeing the rest of the flick to swing into Bibi's escapades in the elegantly dressed high society,and the frantic rush for his real identity not to be unmasked.

Adapting one of the few Gaston Leroux books not to be centred round a murder mystery, the screenplay by Paul Mesnier matches Pagliero's visual slickness in keeping everything at a surface level, with the film moving at a fast pace thanks to Mesnier having Bibi twist and charm his way out of trouble with devilish glee. Running rings round those after him, Jean Richard gives a witty performance,with Richard's turning him into a ladies man who uses charms with ease, and keeps people from finding out that he is a sour Chéri.