Torticola versus Frankensberg 1952
A comedic take on the Frankenstein story.
A comedic take on the Frankenstein story.
This comedy short subject satirizes the Hollywood genre which the French had given the name to of Film Noir.
In this French murder mystery, a young journalist goes from a bad situation to much worse. He has been having problems in his relationship with his girlfriend, and one evening he goes out on a bender. Too drunk to remember how he got that way, he goes home to sleep it off. When he wakes up in the morning, he discovers that his hangover is the least of his problems -- he is now a suspect in a murder investigation. After getting back together with his girlfriend, he decides to hide out with a friend of his and let the heat cool down -- a big mistake, as he soon finds out.
An off-beat, uneven tale about a man intent on suicide and the three people who try to talk him out of it, Pantalaskas stars American Carl Studer in the title role of the morose, would-be suicide. Set in Paris and taking place over an entire night, the story has a complication in that the trio who want to prevent the suicide do not speak the man's language -- he is Lithuanian and speaks no French. So the protagonists comb the underbelly of a nighttime Paris, looking high and low but mostly low for anyone who speaks Lithuanian. Depending mainly on dialogue for its impact, the verbose drama reveals how the protagonists undergo a transformation as the night wears on.
Short movie starring Marcel Marceau.