Les Perles de la Couronne

Guitry's trilingual (French, English, Italian) toast to the Entente Cordiale is a tale of the adventures of seven pearls, four of them safe in the English crown, three of them lost from a necklace at the time of Mary Queen of Scots. Perhaps little more than the sum of its parts - but what parts! Raimu, Marguerite Moréno (Giraudoux's Madwoman of Chaillot), Arletty as an Abyssinian snake-charmer, Jean-Louis Barrault as Napoleon, and the maestro himself in a quintet of roles. Irresistibly effervescent dialogue, a sprightly 'modern' visual style - one could go on forever about a film that comes to an end all too soon.