To read the previous chapter of this essay on the work of director Robert Saidreau, click here.
A well-documented stillborn film
To summarize, a young French adventurer married to an English Lord for his fortune, paid 70,000 francs in December 1923 to her impresario Mr. Dante so that Robert Saidreau could shoot an original screenplay with her as the star and release it before November 30, 1924. Where several of the director's films struggled to find a place in the newspapers of the time, this shooting is abundantly documented, which is particularly ironic because the film never came out. Two major problems seem to have arisen: the distributors Les Films Legrand refused to release it because they discovered that the actress stank, and that the scenario of Saidreau was not original since it as a new version of his previous movie Beware of Your Maid.
I am suprised at the naivety of Saidreau who thought of duping his funders in such a crass way. Perhaps the delayed releases of his two films shot previously can be explained by this unfortunate experience. It is difficult to see how the reputation of the director can come out intact because, consciously or under the influence of the impresario, his actions are dangerously akin to a swindle. In any case, despite the incarceration of the main star for other reasons, she sues Mr. Dante to recover her money plus an extra 5,000 francs and, from the bottom of her cell, wins her trial, as attested by Comoedia on November 23, 1928 for the first instance, and in 1932 for the appeal. We learn on this occasion that Mr. Dante justifies the fact that the film was not released by the death of Saidreau and the bankruptcy of the distribution company in the meantime. An argument that is difficult to sustain at a time when silent films have almost entirely disappeared.
Shooting and working titles
Later, referring to the trial, as early as 1928 and again on May 25, 1931, the film was mentioned as The Double Mistake, this title never being mentioned in the press before 1928.
A breaking point
The devouring and inevitable presence of star Edmée Dormeuil in this Strange Adventure would almost make you forget that this film, in the continuity of Saidreau's filmography, brings together a few renowned actors. But it also represents a rupture, perhaps because of the relative scandal it must have been and the effect produced on its collaborators.Pierre Etcheparre will never work with Robert Saidreau again. After his intense collaboration with the director, the actor will only return to the silent art once with Donatien in The Castle of Slow Death where he meets Lucienne Legrand again, the director's mate. Then he disappears from the screen until it learns to speak, after which he accumulates secondary roles in France and the United States until his death.
Note that the actress Suzy Pierson, whom Saidreau finds here after the filming of Un fil à la Patte, had already shot just two years earlier a film, actually released, with the same title, directed by Joe Hamman.
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| Andrée Warnecke |
Jean Magnard, in the role of André, ends his filmography here, and for good reason: he dies within the year. Andrée Warnecke, who made her debut in Un fil à la Patte, will not return to the camera either despite her multiple talents as a violinist, dancer and singer. Yvonne Favet and Solange Marchal also make it their last film. Only Georgette Lhéry, who had started her cinematographic career with Pierre Colombier in New Year's Eve with Suzanne Bianchetti, still seems to shoot a few films.
Finally, although the presence of Saidreau's mascot is well and truly attested during this filming in the night club scenes where he teaches her to dance, the famous Mirabel, encountered on the set of La paix chez soi, I do not find more evidence of her presence on his following films.
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| Georgette Lhéry |
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 !