''Lady Killer'' (french: Gueule d'amour) is a 1937 French

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Jean Grémillon Jean Grémillon (; 3 October 1901 – 25 November 1959)Note that, despite attempts at correction, thIMDb entry on the directorlists his date of birth erroneously as 4 March 1898. The correct date is given in his standard biography, by Geneviève S ...

and starring

Jean Gabin Jean Gabin (; 17 May 190415 November 1976) was a French actor and singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films including ''Pépé le Moko'' (1937), '' La grande illusion'' (1937), ''Le Quai des brumes'' ...

Mireille Balin Mireille Césarine Balin (born Blanche Mireille Césarine Balin; 20 July 1909, in Monte Carlo – 9 November 1968 in Paris)"Balin, Mireille (1911–1968)." ''Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages'', edited by Anne Commire ...

and Marguerite Deval. It has been classified as both a film noir and an entry into the poetic realist group of films of the late 1930s. It was produced by the German company

UFA Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital city, capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya River (Kama), Belaya and Ufa River, Ufa rivers, in the centre-n ...

in conjunction with its own French subsidiary ACE. Like '' Port of Shadows'' it drew on the tradition of

German expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

in its lighting and set design, although the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

authorities were opposed to the expressionist style. It was shot at the

Babelsberg Studios Babelsberg Film Studio (german: Filmstudio Babelsberg), located in Potsdam-Babelsberg outside Berlin, Germany, is the second oldest large-scale film studio in the world only preceded by the Danish Nordisk Film (est. 1906), producing films since ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and on location around

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. The film's sets were designed by the art directors

Hermann Asmus Hermann Asmus (1887–1968) was a German art director.Giesen p.200 Selected filmography * ''When Women Keep Silent'' (1937) *'' Lady Killer'' (1937) * '' Kora Terry'' (1940) * ''Twilight'' (1940) * ''Andreas Schlüter'' (1942) * '' Sky Hounds'' ( ...

and

Max Mellin Max Mellin (1904–1977) was a German art director.Jacobsen & Prinzler p.275 Selected filmography * ''Happy Days in Aranjuez'' (1933) * ''The Girlfriend of a Big Man'' (1934) * '' Playing with Fire'' (1934) * '' Marriage Strike'' (1935) * ''Fresh ...

. The film was selected for screening as part of the Cannes Classics section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Cast

as Lucien Bourrache, 'Gueule d'Amour' *

as Madeleine * Pierre Etchepare as hotel owner * Henri Poupon as Monsieur Cailloux * as Le valet de chambre *

Pierre Magnier Pierre Frédéric Magnier (February 22, 1869 - October 15, 1959) was a French actor who began on the stage in the 1890s and became a prominent silent film actor in France. He was the second actor to portray '' Cyrano de Bergerac'' in any film in ...

as Commandant * Marguerite Deval as Madame Courtois * René Lefèvre as René * Jane Marken as Madame Cailloux (as Jeanne Marken) * Paulette Noizeux * as restaurant manager (as Siméon) * Pierre Labry as printer * as client *

Louis Florencie Louis Florencie (4 December 1896 – 4 December 1951) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1927 and 1951. Selected filmography * ''Companion Wanted'' (1932) * ''Beauty Spot'' (1932) * '' Suzanne'' (1932) * '' N ...

as waiter (as Florencie) * Paul Fournier as client * as Captain *

Maurice Baquet Maurice Louis Baquet (26 May 1911 – 8 July 2005) was a French actor and cellist. He was born in Villefranche-sur-Saône and died in Noisy-le-Grand.Frédéric Mariotti Frédéric Mariotti (1 April 1883 – 22 February 1971) was a French stage and film actor whose career spanned more than four decades through the early silent film era into the early 1950s. Biography Frédéric Mariotti was born in Marseille and ...

as Le cantonnier (as Mariotti)

References

Bibliography

* Driskell, Jonathan . ''The French Screen Goddess: Film Stardom and the Modern Woman in 1930s France''. I.B.Tauris, 2015. * Spicer, Andrew (ed.) ''European Film Noir''. Manchester University Press, 2019. *Walker-Morrison, Deborah. ''Classic French Noir: Gender and the Cinema of Fatal Desire''. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. * Williams, Alan Larson. ''Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking''. Harvard University Press, 1992.

External links

* 1937 films 1937 drama films French drama films French black-and-white films Films set in Cannes Films directed by Jean Grémillon 1930s French-language films Films shot in Paris Films shot at Babelsberg Studios UFA GmbH films 1930s French films {{1930s-France-film-stub