Blonde for Danger

A film build on the meeting of a young woman who escaped from a reformatory and joined a band of small smugglers and a police inspector who is in charge of the investigation of a jewelry robbery in Paris.Virginie helped his young friends to escape from the police and is arrested.Then begins a play between Jean and Virginie which ends in a very convenient wedding for Virginie.But during the weeding she is still contact with her friends the smugglers. Some good moments (when Jean discovers that Virginie is an acrobatic woman). Last comment: the presence of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon at the beginning of there careers.

If you asked a movie buff what's the first time those two legends of French cinema Alain Delon and Jean Paul Belmondo appeared together on the screen, 9 people out of 10 would probably answer "Borsalino", in 1970. Wrong! Their first teaming, albeit in supporting roles, was in "Be Beautiful And Shut Up!", all the way back in 1958; Belmondo's character is even, rather prophetically, called Pierrot! (but not Le Fou). That's really the one of the only two points of interest of this movie; the other is as a showcase for young sexpot Mylene Demongeot, who, like her contemporaries Brigitte Bardot and Francoise Arnoul, was allowed to tease the viewers with almost complete nudity, under the more permissive French cinema rules. Other than that, the story of this movie is hard to follow and even harder to care about following; the fact that there were at least five different writers probably accounts for the confusion. *1/2 out of 4.

There are only four other reviews to this movie, all of them at least somewhat negative. I, on the other hand, absolutely loved it! SOIS BELLE ET TAIS-TOI (translated as either "Be Beautiful and Shut up" or "Look Beautiful and Shut up" although it was released in England as BLONDE FOR DANGER and not released in the states) is a terrific little light film noir with a dash of comedy.

Mylene Demongeot was a rising French starlet at the time. She plays an 18-year-old who is taken a reformatory for bad behavior. She immediately escapes that night with another girl (Béatrice Altariba as Olga) who then introduces her to her boyfriend Alain Delon and two other young friends (one of them a startlingly young Jean-Paul Belmondo). The quartet makes money on the side helping a smalltime crook (René Lefèvre as Raphaël) with his deeds, including what they think is smuggling cameras across the border to be sold, unaware they are actually smuggling stolen emeralds Raphael has placed inside the cameras and the notorious elusive crook Charlemagne (Roger Hanin) is behind the operation.

Mylene accompanies Beatrice and Alain on a joyride in Rene's car without permission who rather stupidly reports his missing car to the police given he has illegal weapons inside of it. Mylene is caught and taken to jail where she encounters hunky older man Henri Vidal, whom she presumes is another person hauled in for bad deeds. Actually, he's an inspector but he goes along with her misunderstanding to win her confidence hoping to pump information from her since he thinks the guns may be tied to Charlemagne. That's not the sort of pumping Mylene is wanting!! He takes her to a local museum where she slips away and reclines on some of the antique furniture and before you know it has turned the tables and gotten Henri to succumb to her lead, in some pretty passionate clinches you'd never seen in an American film from 1958. They are caught by the museum manager who is outraged and calls the police which puts Vidal in a very delicate spot. His boss insists he then marry Mylene to try to kill the potential scandal which he does. Mylene is peeved she'd been had by the inspector but her attraction to him is strong enough she goes along with it, though still befriending and getting involved with the teenaged gang of petty thieves.

Mylene Demongeot is bluntly packaged as a rival to new French sex goddess Brigitte Bardot much like American actresses Cleo Moore and Mamie Van Doren were to Marilyn Monroe in the states. Mylene is cleverly cast in a "bad girl blonde" type role that Cleo and Mamie were starring in at the time in America but the considerably less censorship in French films at the time than in the United States allows the cast to curse on occasion, saying both "b" words, the famous French slang for manure, and even a singular F bomb which wouldn't be heard in American movies for another decade.

Demongeot is a gorgeous baby-faced vamp and gives a very good performance. Veteran French star Henri Vidal is also terrific. Belmondo's part is somewhat small and is listed deep into the credits while Delon gets special end credit billing which seems odd for what is a seemingly small part until the climax where he plays a crucial part.

Most of the French films Americans get to see are usually distinguished productions which is probably the cause of the negative reviews for this programmer picture which nevetheless is just as entertaining if not more so than most of the American "bad girl" movies of the era. The film is beautifully photographed on the streets of Paris and it's charming to see sites like a "Milk Bar" which appears to be something of a glass vending machine for dairy drinks and snacks.

There are some genuinely funny moments in the movie, most of them thanks to Darry Cowl as a bungling inspector who is a coworker. It's not a full comedy though and has some notable noir moments including someone getting bumped off in a bumper car at a small amusement park. This little film is a great showcase for both Vidal and Demongeot. Vidal passed away the next year of a heart attack at age 40. Also dying the next year was elderly character actress Gabrielle Fontan who plays his grandmother in the film. Ms. Fontan got a late start in films at age 56 but she made up for lost time with over 100 credits before her death at age 86 in 1959.

A film that has a promising beginning but becomes rather tedious and tiresome. The previous reviewer has suggested that the premature death of leading man Henri Vidal paved the way for Delon and Belmondo. That is highly debatable! Vidal's performance here is enhanced by the chemistry between him and his ravishing co-star Mylene Demongeot. The 1950's were to prove by far the best period for this irresistible and talented actress. Roger Hanin is marvellously menacing as the villain and his persona was to be used to great effect as the homosexual boxing promoter in Visconti's 'Rocco and his Brothers'. Alain Delon had made his debut for Marc Allegret's brother Yves in 'When the Devil fails...' and would go on to become with the help of Clement, Visconti and Antonioni, a very fine actor in spite of his good looks. As for Darry Cowl, although one can admire his comedy timing his particular brand of buffoonery has never been to my taste but that is just my opinion. This film has been lumbered with the title 'Blonde for Danger' and one can only surmise that the original 'Be beautiful and shut up' would not have gone down too well with non-European audiences. The history of Cinema is littered with films that should have been 'better' and this I'm afraid, is one of them.

Marc Allégret began his career in the late twenties ,but he's remembered for "Fanny"(1932) (but it's mainly Marcel Pagnol's work) and "entrée des artistes"(1938) (but it's mainly Louis Jouvet's performance that' s worth the price of admission).His brother,Yves -who was Simone Signoret's first husband- Allégret gave more memorable works (such as "une si jolie petite plage" "manèges" or "les orgueilleux").

"Sois belle et tais-toi" epitomizes the worst of the French cinema de qualité before the nouvelle vague -one should never forget that there was a great great cinema de qualité with such directors as Clouzot,Duvivier,Decoin,Becker and even Delannoy-;it remains enjoyable -I pass over in silence the screenplay which final line (the title: stay pretty and shut up)will infuriate the feminists-because of the cast:

1.The first time Delon and Belmondo played together (there were three movies in all ,the others being "Borsalino" (1970) and "une chance sur deux" (1998)) just before the time they became the biggest French superstars of the sixties.

2.One of Henri Vidal's last part:he was the fifties' most popular actor and his death in 1960 would make way for his two young supporting actors.

3.Mylène Demongeot was not lucky:they tried to make her a new Brigitte Bardot and there was no room for two ,so her career suffered accordingly.One should note that M.Allegret had already directed B. Bardot just before "sois belle et tais-toi" ,in "en effeuillant la marguerite".

4.Other actors include Roger Hanin ,François Mitterrand's brother-in-law ,and comic actor Darry Cowl.