Huguette Duflos, an "Ex"

Miss Meurs

Huguette was born in Tunis and her mother was from Provence. Or so she repeated in her interviews and memoirs. Little Hermance Joséphine Meurs was actually born in Limoges on August 24, 1887 and the family then moves to Carthage. Making herself 7 years younger (she does not give a precise date) also places her birth in a more exotic place.

Ciné-miroir magazine, actually confirms that birth place in the Limousin region, as they probably were not aware of Huguette's desire to change that detail. Unless Huguette was in a period of honesty, as she also reveals that she came back from Carthage when she was 16, when she timed in at 10 in her later autobiography. You guessed it, it is not easy to unravel the dates given by the actress.

First communion

She tastes the stage by playing an angel in a show in Carthage, set up by the nuns of Saint-Monique where she had entered at 6 and a half years old (1894?).

At 16 ("10" so 1904 or 1898?), she goes to Paris (and mentions snow on arrival, then the spring), enters a school at The Raincy, then Fénelon high school where she reads Zola among a mediocre scholarity. At 15 and a half (1909? 1903?), she enters the conservatory for two years and attends a tragedy and comedy acting class. Marie-Thérèse Kolb teaches the first one and tries to discourage her : her tunisian accent made her laugh when the child belted out "Les imprécations de Camille". She plays Rosine in "Le Barbier de Séville", but is frustrated to play the ingenue. For the final exam (summer of 1905?), she plays Romo & Juliet (she is only a year older than the heroin: 17) and gets second prize.

Madame Duflos at the Comedie Française

The next three years, she travels, and gets married on November 5, 1910 to another professor, actor Raphaël Duflos, almost 30 years her senior. The birth of little Pierre in 1911 may be the cause of this fast union. The settle at 12 rue Cambacérès in the 8th district of Paris and also have a country home at the Château de Châvres in Vaumoise, in the Oise region.

Raphaël Duflos in "The Duel"

In an interview, years after, she says that seeing Raphaël's acting with Mme Bartet at the Comédie Française in "The Duel" by Henri Bartant is one of the reasons why she became an actress.

At 20, (1908?), she says she enters the Comédie Française herself. The historian Yvan Foucart dates it in 1912.

Huguette, herself, gives the date of 1915. (In fact, she is a "pensionnaire" from 1915 to 1924, then a "sociétaire" from 1924 to 1927). She even participates in 1922 in a documentary called Molière, his life, his work.

Her debut is allegedly "Socrate and his wife" by Théodore de Banville with Silvain on November 11, 1915, which is confirmed by a reporter of Le cri de Paris which wishes "the debutante a big success", then she plays "The Chain", by Eugène Scribe, with Grand and Berthe Cerny from December 9, 1915, then the part of Margot in "The Beehive" by Georges Courteline and Pierre Wolff with her husband. She also acts in "The Forced Marriage" by Molière, again with Raphaël. She shares her dressing room with Colonna Romano. Then come "The Imaginary Patient" in 1916, at the celebration of the birth of Molière. Still in 1916, she plays "The New Pauper", a one-act comedy by Jean-François Fonson and the critic of Fantasio finds her pretty and spiritual.

Chérubin in "Le mariage de Figaro"

In 1917, she plays "The Silver Wedding" by Paul Géraldy who laters writes the preface of her autobiography), with René Rocher, the future director of the Caumartin theater, and then of the Antoine theater. Here again, Fantasio writes that she "is a rare sunshine".

In 1918, it is "L'abbé Constantin". Émile Fabre is then administrator of the Comédie Française. She also plays "The Old Man" by Georges de Porto-Riche, and "I Am Too Big For Me" by Jean Sarment...

Huguette Duflos in Cinema

She remembers that it is director Henri Pouctal, at a party, who offers her to try the movie camera in L'instinct from Kistemaeckers, released on October 20, 1916 at the Tivoli theater. In fact, the subject of the play seems taylor-made for the couple of actors: surgeon Jean Bernou (played by Raphaël) made the mistake of marrying a much younger woman, Cécile (Huguette), who is bored by his job. He is soon torn beteween professional duty and jealousy and has to rescue his wife's lover. According to the IMDb, Huguette is an extra in L'assasinat du Duc de Guise by André Calmettes and Charles Le Bargy. Also, Pouctal directs her at least two years before that! But it is La flambée, played by her husband and by the same author, that convince her to enter the movie studios.

The IMDb retains Les droits de l'enfant with Raphaël but Lucien Pinoteau,production manager, remembers that Germaine Dulac directed, not Pouctal.

Huguette recounts her first day at the Film d'Art as a long wait. After several hours, eventually, she goes back to the dressing room to change. Pouctal then enters to tell her that they are waiting for her to shoot: Huguette throws her shoes in his face. Filming will resume, however, and it's the start of a successful career. Hebdo film critic A. de Reusse reports enthusiastically: "She is a charm! It is exquisite to experience it. (...) But I did not suspect in this fine and graceful Parisian such a gift of emotion, such a dramatic power. She is in Instinct the whole Woman: happiness, love, suffering. She is a beautiful and great artist. "

She therefore signs a 3-year contract with Alex Nalpas. He forecasts that she will receive 1,500 francs per month the first year, then 1,800 the following two.

L'abbé Constantin in 1917

She thus turns Madeleine for Jean Kemm, from to the novel of Jules Sandeau and at the time of the release, Hebdo-film announces that Huguette is decidedly "one of our next big stars of the screen."

Louis Nalpas directs her in Volonté from Georges Ohnet's novel. The critic of April 26, 1917 in Le strapontin describes her as "pretty, pleasant, touching" but regrets that the length of the screens (the subtitles) prevented him from enjoying the acting.

Then Gaston Ravel's Unknown Woman, where Hebdo-film predicts that she will one day certainly count among the three or four biggest stars of the screen.
Then come the sentimental comedy Her Hero by Burguet (Hebdo-film reports on the presentation on July 7, 1917 and judges Huguette fine and spiritual), and The blues of love by Desfontaines.



Then a great Pouctal film, Work released on January 20, 1920, in which Huguette shared the spotlight with her husband.



She is filming L'ami Fritz with director René Hervil, that she played on stage with the Comédie Française on the evening of her first day of filming, a film for which she remembers "Never had Alsace received so much water fom the sky." The gala presentation in December 1919 takes place in the presence of Maréchal Foch and Maréchal Pétain with a special score by Henri Maréchal.

In L'ami Fritz

She remembers that after the shots of Madame de La Seiglière, again fom Jules Sandeau, Romuald Joubé and she were relaxing dancing the fox-trot to the sound of a barrel organ, which was the delight of Antoine.
Comoedia reports on October 25, 1919, that like Gloria Swanson in Male and Female, the same year, Huguette filmed a dream sequence in the company of a lion with no other protection than the presence of the tamer out of scope. The Flower of the Indies, by T. Bergerat, is also a success. In December 1920, Pathé published The Love Trap, which was also released in Great Britain.

Huguette the Star

With Romuald Joubé in Mlle de la Seiglière

Huguette receives letters from all over Europe and sometimes enjoys reading them in the company of her secretary. Fans ask her her feelings about Mussolini, if she likes Ramon Novarro, how much she earns, what she cooks ... But Huguette does not like politics.

Cinémagazine readers elect her as the best candidate to play Constance Bonacieux in Les trois mousquetaires, yet Huguette has other roles in mind in her contract with L'Élipse. This popularity takes on a new development when the film Mysteries of Paris is released, where Huguette plays the famous role of Fleur-de-Marie.

From May 27, 1921, she makes the cover of Cinémagazine. She reiterates that she was born in Tunis and that her first film is The Instinct. She adds that she smokes and that her hero is Napoleon, in the middle of other answers to the stupid questions of an interview for fans. The following article signals Lily Vertu's release and sings Huguette's praises in L'ami Fritz et Madame de La Seiglière. She also filmed Childhood Friend for Films Alouette which also came out in 1922.

In Lily Vertu

She then makes I killed! alongside international star Sessue Hayakawa and La Princesse aux clowns with Charles de Rochefort. She plays in Koeningsmark to be directed by Léonce Perret but also to satisfy a childhood dream: visit Germany. The company shoots in Tyrol, Partoenkirchen, Ammergau, Schongau. She rejoices in the pges of Ciné-Miroir, before leaving, that she is going to have "twenty-six dresses and various costumes and especially a bridal toilet with a 7 meters long train."

The extras from the Munich opera house shoot silhouettes in the film and delight the singing team on rainy days. The nephew of the County Zeppelin wins the role of one of the ministers of the character of Huguette.

With Jaque Catelain in Koenigsmark

She evokes the French cuisine of a restaurant in Munich in 1923 because that is where the film comes out. There, she sees the extreme poverty due to the war which left Germany bloodless and she remembers that Catelain did not have much fun. He must carry her at arm's length, apparently passed out, going down three floors with a fire ladder, all watered by firefighters who try to put out the fire from which their characters flee. Several takes of this ordeal are necessary. The actress ends up with 3 weeks of high fevers and pulmonary congestion with complications that prevent her from appearing on stage for 6 months.

Barely convalescent, she decides on a whim to cut her long blond curls. She then adopts a more modern hairstyle, and more in keeping with her age.

Still convalescent, she leaves on Tuesday June 30, 1925 to shoot in Vienna Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight with the Rose) by Robert Wiene with Jaque Catelain.

The shooting lasts 6 weeks. It is Thursday, December 16, 1926 that takes place in Mogador the general rehearsal with the orchestra for the French premiere but its release in this same theater will not take place until March 28, 1927! Indeed, Richard Strauss wrote a score specially for the film, which has already been released since January 1926 in Berlin.

With Georges Galli in L'homme à l'hispano

For The Man in the Hispano, she sets out to shoot a few scenes in Arnaga, in the Basque country, in the former villa of Edmond Rostand. She remembers, on the occasion of a radio broadcast of October 31, 1953 about the director of the film, Lucien Pinoteau, and how much this filming had enchanted him: admirably received by a wealthy Argentinian, the crew shot for a month in admirable gardens. In this film, she shares the spotlight with a newcomer, Georges Galli, who shortly after will become, and for the rest of her life, the happy priest of Sanary-sur-mer.

At the same time, on March 8, 1924, she signs to become a member of the Comédie Française and stays there for 20 years.

Huguette Ex-Duflos, a Single Lady

On December 1, 1925, La rampe announces that the separation announced "a long time ago" of the two members is now done: Huguette and Raphaël separate "amicably" and the latter allows Huguette to keep his name. She is supposed to remarry "with an industrialist". On March 27, 1926, Paris evening confirmed that they were in the process of divorce.
Around April 1926, she embarked for Tunis to play Yasmina.

On June 29, 1926, tired of being removed from roles for younger actresses, she sent in her resignation from La Comédie française, following Raphaël who himself left the institution 2 years earlier. Her resignation is refused: weary, Huguette had already been hired since July 5 by Mr. Lehmann to play at the Théâtre de la porte Saint-Martin. A trial followed which condemned her to pay 150,000 francs in damages.

This departure heralds another change. Paris evening warns us on July 23, 1927 that following a "resounding divorce", Huguette must change her stage name. Apparently the separation is not as friendly as previously announced. Her stage name is now supposed to be her first name alone. It is therefore with a certain irony, and a certain sense of publicity, that the poster of her new play at the Athénée, "Nicole and her virtue", proclaimed on September 8, 1927 that it would be played by " Huguette, Ex-Duflos ". It is under this name, with or without commas and sometimes in parentheses, that the actress will perform for years after that. She claimed in an interview in 1933 that it was the idea of ​​the warden who "didn't know what to put on the poster".

She therefore rehearses a show by Maurice Donnay and Henri Duvernois at La porte Saint Martin. She is panned by critics. Her styla of acting, probably too emphatic, heritage of the Comédie Française, hardly lends itself "boulevard" plays. She perseveres and learns by playing "Nicole and her virtue",

Then came "Crime" from April 26, 1928, "The Wasp" (by Romain Coolus at the Fémina Theater), "The Man of Joy" (by Paul Géraldy and Robert Spitzler, at the Madeleine Theater), "The last Tsar ","Miss France","Bloomfield"," Paraître "(by Maurice Donnay), ...

On December 18, 1928, she embarked in Marseilles on the Lotus for a 52-day Eastern tour that will pass through Alexandria, Cairo, Athens, Constantinople, Bucharest and in each of these cities, the troop (Maurice Escande, Lafon, Germaine Michel, Ginette Faure, Marguerite Bolza, Yvonne Garat, Julien Lacroix, Clément Berger and Hélène Mirey with the impresario Bertran) is enthusiastically welcomed.

In her 6 trunks, she takes 80 dresses to be able to interpret the 10 plays planned: from "Camille" to "The Wasp" and "Nicole and her virtue" as well as "The Night of October". After Bucharest, where she receives the Bene Merenti medal, she rushes to Paris where she has a commitment to play "The Man of Joy" by Paul Géraldy. The tour therefore continues with Marie-Thérèse Pierat who replaces Huguette Duflos.

Huguette Speaks!

In the spring of 1929, Roger Goupillères asks her to shoot her first speaking role in the medium-length film The voice of his mistress, with André Luguet, also a defector from the Comédie Française. Indeed, Huguette is the ideal interpreter of this new medium: in addition to the fact that she has already been a certified movie star for over 10 years, her experience on the most prestigious stages leaves no doubt about her ability to master his voice. She remembers, however, that because of the still flickering technique, there was little talk in this film and that "it was probably not for the worse."

Despite the technical limitations, talking films are made in France and Mr. Adolphe Osso, director of the French Paramount hires Huguette in October 1930 as the main star of the adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel: The mystery of the yellow room, shot by Marcel L'herbier in Joinville and in the studios of La rue Francoeur.
She remembers that she had to practically scream lines supposed to be whispered when the microphone was far away and her acting, still very tinged with her experiences with silents and the stage, is in fact hardly suited to talking pictures.

Duflos in America

But the American studios are also eager to keep the European market on which their silent production has dominated since World War I. The adaptation of a silent film requires only new subtitles and a few cuts, but despite some very rare dubbing attempts at the start of the talkies era, many English speaking films are shown in Paris and, once the appeal of the novelty passed, the American films are likely to be shunned by French people, proverbially bad in foreign languages.

Images are clumsily replaced by subtitles to translate the dialogues, but the solution looming at the start of the 1930s consists of shooting foreign versions of American successes. Some films are entirely shot or partially modified in France like Paramount in Parade. It appears to the studios that it is much cheaper to use the sets of the original production in Hollywood and expatriate French-speaking interpreters are therefore used as supporting roles. The best actors are in Paris. Never mind: they are offered the salary necessary for them to make the trip.

This is how Huguette, without speaking a word of English, embarks without much conviction on the Mauretania on December 27, 1930, and after a very short passage in New York, crosses the United States by train, a trip that she finds monotonous. She discovers in Hollywood the industrial rigor of the dream machine and is shocked to be fined when she is caught damaging a hat which she must wear in the film.

But she is also warmly welcomed by the colony of French stars who came for the same reason as her: Jacques Feyder and Françoise Rosay, a couple, seem to be the glue of this group also composed of Arlette Marchal, André Luguet, Jeanne Helbling, etc.
She is filming with Charles Boyer and François Rosay the French version of a film whose main role is interpreted by Norma Shearer in the American version: The Trial of Mary Dugan.

With Charles Boyer and André Burgère in Le procès de Mary Dugan

The shooting lasts only 17 intense days and her stay 3 weeks during which she meets Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, etc. and watches in wonder at the premiere of City Lights on January 30, 1931 at the Los Angeles Theater where she is amazed at the blase reception of such a masterpiece.
The Trial of Mary Dugan is released in France on November 6, 1931, date on which Huguette has already returned home contrary to what was planned: a mourning gives her the pretext she needs to break her contract with MGM and leave this country whose language she does not speak and where the exercise of her profession is too different for her taste. The French version of Paid, with Joan Crawford, where she was to star, will not be shot.
The systematic production of multiple versions hardly survives her departure, replaced by the generalization of dubbing which does not have the enormous disadvantage of depriving American stars of their popularity abroad and offers the advantage of being a lot cheaper. Some stars then return to France and others, such as Charles Boyer, Lily Damita, stay or later return to make a career in the language of Shakespeare.
Mourning is not the only tragedy Huguette has to face: on May 3, 1931, while she was playing "Tout va bien" by Jeanson at the theater, she appears on the cover of the Petit Journal because a madwoman tried to stab her.
Many of the defects during shooting of The Mystery of the Yellow Room are already fixed during the filming of the second part: The perfume of the lady in black which she began in June 1931, first on the Riviera for the exteriors, then at the studios of Courbevoie and rue Francoeur for the interiors. The film is presented on November 6 at 10 a.m. and is warmly received. As of 1:15 p.m., the same day, the public can see the film at the Marivaux Pathé, while The Trial of Mary Dugan comes out the same day at the Aubert Palace. 

Memories of an Actress

One would have thought that this was the start of a meteoric career in talkies. However, it is hard not to notice that the roles of the actress are still often those of the pretty blonde and there are many actresses much younger to play those parts. Even when you are officially seven years younger than your arteries, it is difficult to play the ingenue at 44!

Huguette then leaves the screens and sets about writing her autobiography which comes out in 1932: Hours of an actress. She signs it Huguette Ex-Duflos and only mentions her ex-husband when the absolute necessity dictates it, and without naming him. Perhaps she is advised in this publication by her 20-year-old son Pierre Duflos, who himself published La Princesse aux skis in February 1931.


However, relations with her ex-husband seem so good that they play together again in "Bonheur", a play by Mrs. Karem Bramson from March 1933 at the Theater of Ambassadors. On this occasion, and apparently in agreement with him, she takes back the name of Huguette Duflos. But the years of "Ex-Duflos" will leave their mark for a long time still: in October 1944, first to denounce Léo Joannon as collaborator, then years after for sharp criticisms of shows, Henri Jeanson will sign in Le Canard enchaîné and in Cinémonde, under the ironic pseudonym of "Huguette Ex-Micro" accompanied by a very unflattering caricature. For the time being, the new friendly relationship between the ex-spouses is even the subject of an article in Paris Soir on March 10, 1933.

Detail of the cover of Cinémonde, April 6, 1948.

In 1934, she plays "Do Mi Sol Do" at the Michodière Theater with Victor Boucher.


She does not return to film studios until 1935 for the musical Martha where she plays Queen Anne. The press informs us that the film cannot be finished in time for the selected period of exclusivity and therefore, the film is released on all Parisian screens on January 17, 1936.

With Jean-Pierre Aumont in Maman Colibri

She then takes the role of another Queen for Sacha Guitry in Les perles de la Couronne, and then the title role of Maman Colibri, by Julien Duvivier, a remake in which she plays the role of grandmother.

She continues her career on stage with "Coconut" by Marcel Achard alongside Raimu. The play is a great success and is even broadcast in February 1936.

On December 16, 1937, she plays "Le train pour Venise" at the Saint Georges Theater with Louis Verneuil. Huguette keeps her role in the film adaptation by André Berthomieu the following year.

In 1939, she plays the main role of Faces of women by René Guissart, in which Pierre Brasseur leaves her for a young Meg Lemmonier.

With Pierre Brasseur in Visages de femmes

In 1943, Huguette is interviewed on the radio when she plays "Le fantôme de Madame" at the Saint-Georges Theater alongside Francis Blanche and Henri Vidal. In 1950, she plays Léa in "Chéri" by Colette and Léopold Marchand with Jean Desailly in a radio adaptation broadcast on March 30. Before that, on March 13, she creates the role of the Countess Louise de Clérambard on stage in "Clérambard" by Marcel Aymée, which is a tremendous success which is therefore replayed 4 years later, still with Huguette.

On October 18, 1951, she is interviewed about her studies in the Lycée Fénelon during a radio broadcast devoted to the establishment. She finds the school very black, very sad. She claims to have learned to read with Musset at 6 years old. On February 21, 1954, the radio broadcast an adaptation of Frédéric Dard from Bel Ami de Maupassant where Huguette Duflos plays Mrs. Walter. On May 1, she therefore resumes "Clérambard". On June 26, 1955, with Jacques Morel, she plays on the radio Le croquant indiscret. On April 14, 1957, she played The Old Mistress on the radio.

On February 18, 1958, she appears in a radio program on Marcel L'Herbier, under the direction of which she shot her first two talking feature films. On April 17, 1960, the radio records Gigi from the Antoinette theater where Huguette plays the role of Madame Alvarez. On March 30, 1961, she again resumes her role in Clérambard for the radio. On January 20, 1966, television pays tribute to Jaque Catelain and broadcast an interview with Huguette on this occasion.

On June 23, 1967, Huguette takes part in the show Alors Raconte with Maurice Escande where he tells the storms they had to endure during the famous eastern tour. On April 9, 1969, Huguette returned to French screens (small, this time), in order to discuss with her fellow actors the beginnings of the talking film during the program Les dossiers de l'écran. To comment on the screening of the film Sunset Blvd., the star Gloria Swanson is invited as well as many French stars like Albert Préjean, Jean de Limur, Arlette Marchal ...

She dies on April 12, 1982 at the very respectable age of 94.

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