The Bread Peddler (1963)

Storyline :

The Bread Peddler 1963 The first half of the sixties saw a mini boom of French old melodramas of the nineteenth century The most celebrated of them Les Mysteres de Paris someones reading that book in Cloches film was filmed by Andre Hunebelle in 1962 with poor resultsRiccardo Freda tackled DEnnerys Les Deux Orphelines which was made by Griffith as Orphans of the storm in the silent era and remade by Maurice Tourneur in the thirties and Roger la Honte Maurice Cloche took la Porteuse de Pain bread carrier which he had already filmed in 1949 and succeeded measurably wellthe loooong novel was simplified with good results Xavier de Montepins style is mushy the last line of the story not used ,wisely ,in the movie is Ive suffered ,but now,its paradiseAh God is kind La Porteuse de Pain owes a lot to the cast Suzane Flon,a very talented thespian was ideally cast as Lise Fortier,an ill fortunate woman,unfairly charged with murder,sent to jail,separated from her children,you know the score Philippe Noiret plays a delightful villainJean Rochefort is the mischievous blackmailer cousin Costumes and settings recreate Paris of the late nineteenth century the ball scene is particularly successful,as the dancers waltz to the Blue Danube or do the quadrille to Il A Des Bottes Bastien an old popular song 1876 which began as a honky tonk repetitive ditty and ended up in the bourgeois mansions This is not a masterpiece ,but it is a well made melodrama which should appeal to aficionados of the genre Remade in the seventies as a miniseries starring Martine Sarcey as the carrier with supporting roles by Jacques Villeret and Bernard Giraudeau