The Well-Digger's Daughter

The Well Digger's Daughter, which Marcel Pagnol made just before the war, has all the ingredients of some of Frank Capra's films, like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It is almost as old; it has a good deal of comedy, a heavy dollop of pathos, and something of a social message. It is entertaining-about as entertaining as Mr. Smith would be to a French audience.

The movie deals with an innocent country girl who finds she is pregnant by a pilot. The pilot is off at war, and his nasty bourgeois parents refuse to acknowledge the child. Then the pilot is reported dead; from this point, things take an upward turn, and it develops that the pilot is not dead after all. Pilot and parents come to ask for the girl's hand and reparer, if memory serves, notre mauvaise action. Everything turns out better than anyone would have dared dream.

Although it is rather sentimental and rather long, the real defect of the movie is the supposedly irresistible pilot. He is too much of a wonk to be appealing to even the most innocent of well-digger's daughters, and this makes most of the action rather improbable.

The well-digger is played by Raimu, who is like Fernandel, except that he is fatter and has less conspicuous teeth. He converses with his hands, using his voice only as accompaniment. He is at his best in an elaborate double-entendre involving well-digging and the courting of his daughter.

His daughter is played by Josette Day; she is Fernandel's daughter in private life, but could not be accused of being in the least like Fernandel. Since her baby is born off-screen, she does not have a great deal to do except look beguiling and innocent, which she does very nicely.

But the real hero of the affair is Fernandel himself, and it is a pity his role is not larger. He has a marvelous antique car that trots like a spavined horse, and he shines in an all-too-brief drunk scene. The sight of Fernandel in uniform- he follows the pilot off to war-helps to explain the failure of the Maginot Line.