Le Million Reviews

Perhaps Rene Clair's most appealing film, and an extremely inventive one in the bargain. One of the string of superb films this fine French director made in the 1920s and 1930s, this is a nonstop comic chase through a studio set of Paris (designed by Clair's collaborator Lazare Meerson) to find a winning lottery ticket left in the pocket of a discarded jacket. Generally considered Clair's masterpiece (though A NOUS LA LIBERTE also has its supporters), the film is a sustained comic delight. As in the previous UNDER THE ROOFS OF PARIS and his subsequent A NOUS LA LIBERTE, Clair creates a wholly original world of song and sound that completely defies realism. He also manages quite a few satiric touches which belie his background in the Surrealist and Dada movements of the 1920s. Although such uses of sound effects as the noise of a football game dubbed in over one particularly frantic chase have since been repeated, they still enchant today. The camerawork too, is amazingly supple for a period in which bulky sound recording devices turned so many films into stagy bores, and the story simply floats along as a result. Annabella and Rene Lefevre are immensely winning in the leading roles, and are backed by a solid supporting cast. One of the truly great early sound films, it was an international success with both critics and public.