Boudu Sauvé des Eaux [Boudu Saved from Drowning] ***** (1932, Michel Simon, Charles Grandval, Marcelle Hainia, Sévérine Lerczinska) – Classic Movie Review 8627

Writer-director Jean Renoir’s famed 1932 French classic Boudu Sauvé des Eaux [Boudu Saved from Drowning] tells a story about the grubby tramp (Michel Simon) who has lost his dog and didn’t want to be saved from suicide by drowning in the River Seine.

He then pesters the life out of the bookseller Édouard Lestingois (Charles Grandval) and his family who help him and take him in, seducing both the maid (Sévérine Lerczinska) – Lestingois’s lover – and the mistress of the house, Emma Lestingois (Marcelle Hainia).

Simon’s sterling performance as Boudu and the strong, resonant tale propel the exuberant anarchic farce Boudu Sauvé des Eaux [Boudu Saved from Drowning], in which Renoir entertains royally as he attacks Parisian middle-class manners and brings a sharp whiff of summer in the city.

If it sounds familiar, it is also the plot of the 1986 American remake Down and Out in Beverly Hills, based on the play by René Fauchois.

It is the last of four films the director made with Simon.

Also in the cast are Jacques Becker, Jean Dasté, Jean Gehret, Max Dalban and Geneviève Cadix.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8627

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