Femmes de Paris

This movie is an excuse for showing cabaret acts :apart from a short segment which takes place in an observatory ,all the action,so to speak,takes place in the "Blue Ribbon nightclub.

An astronomer (Michel Simon) who was awarded the Nobel prize ,no less, studies the stars and discovers a nova.He receives a phone call from the "Blue Ribbon" :a girl threatens suicide to blackmail a certain Patrice .

Our scientist leaves the milky way and its stars to see other stars ,who perform on the cabaret stage ;here he investigates :who is this mysterious suicidal person? The viewer does not have to be Poirot or Holmes to guess who she is as soon as she appears .

That's not much of a screenplay and about half of the movie is given over to the "Blue Ribbon" acts: a bevy of girls,some of whom topless -which must have infuriated the office Catholique Du Cinema who forbade this filthy flick to their flock-, a stand up comic (Robert Lamoureux)a musical in miniature featuring Ray Ventura ,Ses Collégiens ,his nephew (Sacha Distel ,whose appearance is short) ,Roger Pierre and Jean- Marc Thibault; It's rather plodding and my prize of consolation is Patachou's fine rendering of Brassens 's "Brave Margot" ,the story of a naive peasant girl who unfastens her blouse to breastfeed her little cat and who believes that all the guys around come to see her pet.

Michel Simon is not only an astronomer ;he also was a boxer at the university and it shows;but only his "completist" fans might be interested

;the others had better watch the 1939 Boyer/Simon collaboration ,"Circonstances Atténuantes" ,Comme De Bien Entendu.