Greetings!


Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

Thanks for visiting!


Saturday, May 23, 2020

Girl In His Pocket (1957)

Starring Jean Marais, Genevieve Page, Jean-Claude Brialy, Agnes Laurent, Jean-Paul Moulinot
Directed by Pierre Kast
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A scientist develops a formula for shrinking living creatures into tiny immobile statues, and ends up using the formula to facilitate an affair with his beautiful young assistant.

We have here a very charming and likable science fiction comedy from France, which doesn't utilize much in the way of special effects, but is well-written and well-acted by the talented cast.  Turning other shrinking movies on their head, the intent is not to explore a new giant world, but instead Marais uses the formula to shrink the beautiful Laurent and carry her in his pocket to rendezvouses for trysts, while detectives are following him at the request of his jealous and possessive fiancee.  This leads to a number of natural comic situations, and although I wouldn't say the film is uproariously funny, there's still chuckles to be had.  Marais may be best known for playing the Beast in Jean Cocteau's 1946 adaptation of Beauty And The Beast, and Fantomas in a series of films, and gives a good performance, but in my opinion Laurent is the star of this film, so appealing as the professor's student whose infatuation with the man turns into a believable love affair.

No comments:

Post a Comment