The Suitors Club (French: Le club des soupirants) is a 1941 French comedy film directed by Maurice Gleize and starring Fernandel, Louise Carletti and Annie France.[1] [2] [3] The film was produced by the German-backed company Continental Films. It was shot at the Marseille Studios and on location around Nice in the Unoccupied Zone.[4] The film's sets were designed by the art director Georges Wakhévitch.

The Suitors Club
Directed byMaurice Gleize
Written byMarcel Aymé
André Cayatte
Maurice Gleize
Jean Manse
Produced byAlfred Greven
StarringFernandel
Louise Carletti
Annie France
CinematographyLéonce-Henri Burel
Edited byChristian Gaudin
Music byPhilippe Parès
Georges Van Parys
Production
company
Distributed byL'Alliance Cinématographique Européenne
Release date
  • 26 September 1941 (1941-09-26)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

Plot

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Having run up heavy debts, a group of young men are persuaded by their creditor to court the wealthy heiress Daisy's hand in marriage. They are given intensive training in the arts of wooing. Amongst them is Antoine a butterfly collector who is more interested in Daisy's cousin Edith. In fact Edith turns out to have the money, while Daisy finds genuine romance with Maxime.

Cast

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Production

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Marcel Pagnol rented his studio in southern France to Continental Films in early 1941. Filming started in April, but was stopped by Vichy authorities due to the "immoral and false insinuations that it contains about French society". Maurice Gleize consulted with the Propaganda Abteilung which respected the French government's right to censor films, but that censoring films in the Zone libre was "not a sound policy". This was the only Continental film made in southern France.[5]

References

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Works cited

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  • Bowles, Brett (2009). "Accommodating Vichy: the politics of Marcel Pagnol's La Fille du puisatier". Historical Reflections. 35 (2). Berghahn Books.

Bibliography

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  • Leteux, Christine. Continental Films: French Cinema under German Control. University of Wisconsin Press, 2022.
  • Rège, Philippe. Encyclopedia of French Film Directors, Volume 1. Scarecrow Press, 2009.
  • Siclier, Jacques. La France de Pétain et son cinéma. H. Veyrier, 1981.
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