Evening star., 1946-04-15

30 RUE MONTMARTRE, French
stroheim, Lucien ,Baroux, Gaby Moray
Elvira Popescu, Jules Berry, Simone Ber.
| riau and Michel Simone. At the Hippo
drome.
Maybe it was the war which
understandably enough, did some.
thing to the French sense Of
humor. At any rate, there is sup.
port of this thought at the Hippo
drome in "32 Rue Montmartre, g
prewar French picture which ar.
rived Saturday to supplant "Whirl-
wind of Paris" a postwar excursion
into dullness. Far from dull, "32
Rue Montmartre" is one of those
rollicking comedies with which Gal
lie actors, directors and script
writers have so much fun. 0
1t is described as "Gallic Grand
Hotel" but the comparison is the
most elementary and ends there
Vicki Baum never dreamed up such
a set of characters as live in this
apartment house at 80 Rue Mont
martre. Some colorful people turn
up, we want you to know, when
the gendarmerie arrives on the
premises to seek out the assassin of
the landlady, who has been found
murdered in her elevator. Among
the more interesting is the digni-
fled collector of ash trays, watches
and other assorted items, who ad-
mits to a detective that the collec-
ton has not cost him much
inasmuch as he is a kleptomaniac
and therefore does not have to pay
for things. Becomes very indignant,
he does, when called thief, point
ing out that medical science con-
siders him not responsible.
X X X X
This proud and honorable klep-
tomaniac has little enough to do
with the plot of the picture, to be
sure, being merely one of many red
herrings that are shifted at in pass
ing by the two detectives at work
on the crime. But his presence is
part of the daft pattern of the film,
built upon French thesis that
every one has something to hide.
Knock on a door and yell "Police!"
say the French, and just as likely
as not you will get an immediate
confession of crime, or at least mis-
demeanor.
The two rival plain clothes gen.
darmes Zone from headquarters and
the other from the immediate pre-
cinct, or whatever Parisians call
it, in search of murderer here,
uncover a number of other daffy
affairs before they find their man.
They pass out handouts with such
gay abandon that they might be
mere overtime parking tickets. They
find a maid who has been stealing
her mistress silverware for her
dowry, a poor bank clerk who has
embezzled 1000 francs to pay a
pretty girls room rent and they
keep tripping over clandestine
amours with appalling regularity.
As an example of the mood In
which affairs are conducted at "32
Rue Montmartre" we can give you
that moment when the two detec-
tives enter the murder victims
apartment in search of clues. One
spies a stain on the floor and
nudges the other, who rushes over
to 1t. Kneeling, he rubs some of
the damp stain on his fingers,
shifts it, then shrugs. Wine" he
says, naming the brand. "On the
young side, too. Inferior"
There also IS the continuing argu-
ment between the kleptomaniac and
another passing suspect held tenn
porarily in the same kitchen. a
circus knife thrower. At odds to
begin with because one of the
knife thrower's knives is found
bloody in the kleptomaniac's apart
ment, they manage to become
violent over whether or not (a)
the knife thrower is an artist since
he does his work to Mozart music