Beware of Your Maid [Robert Saidreau - Chapter 4]

To read the previous chapter of this essay on the work of director Robert Saidreau, click here.

A first feature film?

Beware of Your Maid is an original vaudeville script by director Robert Saidreau which, if Jacques Richard is to be believed, also appears on screen. But he also speaks of it as his directorial debut, which, as we have seen, is wrong. Nevertheless this production is a little different from Saidreau's previous ones: it is indeed not a series like "Chalumeau", but is it his first feature film?

Without being able to know the exact footage length, we can determine that it was a fairly long film. In La dépêche of March 18, 1920, he was presented as the main attraction of the show at the Royal Theater of Toulouse.

Le progrès de la Côte d'Or of September 5, 1920 allows to get a more precise idea by describing a film in two parts (which often describes the number of reels) and by promising "half an hour of fun". In any case, it was considered at the time worthy of being reviewed among other feature films in the press, and unlike short films where the newspapers only listed the main star at best, we have a cast here, as rich as it is prestigious for this film.

Cast

Bonsoir of February 14, 1920 presents it in his "films of the week" and judges that it is "a comedy which has only gay pretension and which succeeds admirably. M. de Féraudy is naturally excellent and, to his side, Messrs. de Garcin, Saulieu; Mlles Sergyl and Génin are partners full of spirit and gaiety. "
L'Avenir of February 21, 1920 praises these same actors and the director: "Ciné-Location Eclipse gives us the good surprise of a French film, Beware of your Maid, which obtained the most frank and the most legitimate success. This charming comedy, staged with perfect taste, is performed in a masterly way (...). "
It is notable that Saidreau is not mentioned among the cast. Does he really play in the film as Jacques Richard claims? In any case, the female star here is undoubtedly Yvonne Sergyl, already a regular on the screen and who will experience the peak of her career in the following 4 years with first Les mystères de Paris, then the role of Jeanne Hachette in the epic of Raymond Bernard, The miracle of the wolves, which she will play again for a few speaking scenes when the film is re-released in 1930, after which she will shoot only one film and will disappear from the screen forever.
The most famous star of the film is de Féraudy. At the time, it was common to only credit the surname of the actors and to omit the first names. But then, at the time Maurice and his son Jacques were both well-known actors on stage and on screen.

 

Maurice or Jacques de Féraudy?

We find mention until the summer of this film, in Paris, in the provinces or in the colonies. Until December 31, 1920, we can find the film in the program of the Epatant Theater in Paris, March 18 at the Royal in Toulouse, May 23 at the Cinema Palace in Biarritz, August 2 in Algiers, etc. And the film was released in April 1922 and was found until June of that year in the colonies.
In Biarritz, moreover, it is also reported that the main actor is de Féraudy "of the Comédie Française", which would make it possible to lean in favor of Maurice de Féraudy, rather than his son Jacques who later collaborates with Saidreau in Peace at Home. In fact, there is no mention on this occasion of a previous collaboration.
In Jacques Richard's dictionary, however, it is Jacques who is listed for Beware of Your Maid, but not for Peace at Home.
However, his father Maurice is listed for L'extra, apparently by Saidreau in 1923. But this film, as far as I can judge, does not exist and I cannot find a trace of it.
L'extra is, however, the name of a play, performed by Saidreau, written in 1906 by Pierre Veber, who wrote the screenplay for Coeur Léger directed by Saidreau. It could have been a working title of Coeur Léger but neither of the two Féraudy stars in this film.
It is finally Le petit courrier of April 14, 1920 which makes it possible to decide by listing "M. J. de Féraudy". Le progrès de la Côte-d'Or of September 5, 1920 confirms this by writing "Jacques" in full and specifying that he is playing the part of Le Trapu des Batignolles.

Jacques de Féraudy

 

The story

This also confirms that the story of the film revolves around a bourgeois (probably Sergyl) whose husband (Saulieu?) wants to subdue by simulating a burglary with an accomplice (Garcin?) who would pass for an Apache (no, not Geronimo). The maid of the title (Génin?) overhears the plans and helps her mistress thwart them. Only then, a real thug (de Féraudy) appears.
We find this theme of the false Apache replaced by a real one in French cinema long after the term has fallen into disuse: it is the subject of one of the first talking French films: Paris by Night.

Saidreau director, actor ?

We have seen that Saidreau is not mentioned as an actor in the press. To add to the potential mystery, the director's name is rarely mentioned during the release of Beware of Your Maid. It is again Le petit courier which identifies him as a director, although his name is followed by the mention "du Palais Royal", thus reminding us that he is even better known as a stage actor than as a film director.

We also find his name years later, when he tries to pass off the screenplay as original by re-filming it to satisfy the order of a wealthy widow. A trial will take place where the name of this film will come back to the fore. This will be the subject of a future chapter.

To read the next chapter on the work of director Robert Saidreau, click here.

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That's all for today folks! See you soon !