Sérénade aux nuages

The first of the two Tino Rossi movies directed by André Cayatte ,the second one being "Le Chanteur Inconnu" ,released the following year.In between these two musicals ,the director made the two episodes of the "Roger La Honte " melodrama.None of these four works represent Cayatte's trademark though:trained as a lawyer,Cayatte used to champion any cause going from death penalty to miscarriages of justice;he was unfairly put down by Truffaut.When we see what justice (?) has become today in contemporary France,we realize how much we do need a new Cayatte .

"Serenade Aux Nuages" is another vehicle for highly popular crooner Tino Rossi,an impersonal movie ,which begins with a radio broadcast :two songs ,ten minutes,a delight for the fans ,filler for the others;however, in the end,this sequence is not gratuitous:it permits a rather smart scene in the last fifteen minutes,when Sylvio's impromptu live performance is mistaken for that radio program.

The screenplay is as old as the hills:the singer sick and tired of the trouble and the strife who has not had a vacation for years .He leaves Paris ,remining incognito and he winds up in a castle where a broke count (Noel Roquevert) is looking for a treasure which was reportedly buried in the French Revolution (shades of Marie-Antoinette);of course ,the count has a daughter,a spoiled child who does not get on very well with the singer who passes himself off as the gardener's (Pierre Larquey) nephew.

It is a display of mistaken identities and it is rather entertaining:false servant,false dowser (the true one resembles professor Calculus in the adventures of Tintin),and even false treasure (the true one being the capricious girl,whose behavior makes sense ,because a sour-tempered housekeeper can't replace a mother).

In short,reserved for Rossi's fans;but not representative of Cayatte's work.