Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Edwin
The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
Claudio Carvalho
In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian war, gorgeous laundress Elisabeth Rousset (Simone Simon) is returning home in Cleresville in the occupied France with a snobbish and selfish group of aristocrats, businessmen and a young priest in a stagecoach. When they stop in a inn for the night, the arrogant Prussian Lt. von Eyrick (Kurt Kreuger), known by his alias Mademoiselle Fifi, decides to break the patriotism of Elisabeth and holds up the stagecoach until Elisabeth agrees to "have dinner" with him in his room. The selfish group forces Elisabeth to meet Mademoiselle Fifi, who humiliates her in his room. When the stagecoach finally departs, only Jean Cornudet (John Emery) and the priest comfort Elisabeth and Cornudet decides to stay in Cleresville to ask for forgiveness to Elisabeth. However she rejects his apologies but he decides to stay in the church to help the young priest to resist the Prussians that want him to ring the church bell. Meanwhile Elisabeth is forced to go to a party with Prussian officers where Mademoiselle Fifi is. What will happen to Elisabeth and Cornudet?"Mademoiselle Fifi" is a dull tale of patriotism, with a story that shows the upper classes together with the enemy to keep their privileges and a simple laundress and a priest as symbols of the resistance and rejection of the enemies. The intention of "having dinner with the enemy in his room" is a very clear metaphor of the true intention of the Prussian office. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Mademoiselle Fifi"
JohnHowardReid
Although director Robert Wise makes striking use of standing sets from RKO's Hunchback of Notre Dame to give us memorable images of the coach in the town, the lackluster studio scenes inside the coach, plus a disappointing performance from Simone Simon who plays with little of her usual fire and vigor; plus the very second-string support cast led by John Emery, Kurt Kreuger, Alan Napier, Helen Freeman and Jason Robards, Senior – hardly players that would induce even a mild stampede at the box-office; plus a screenplay that is not only far too talky but far too obviously is bending over backwards to make patriotic parallels; plus Robert Wise's disappointingly bland direction; plus niggardly production values. In all, a very disappointing movie from the Val Lewton unit, well below the producer's usual high standard on all counts, including script, direction, cast, and writing. Screenwriter Peter Ruric could do much better than this, e.g. "The Black Cat" and "Grand Central Murder".
panzerrune
"The performances are mainly so-so but Simon, the beauty she is, can't do much. Her performance here is pretty bad and at times laughable due to her voice, which sounded really bad here. I've never been a big fan of hers but this is certainly the worst thing I've seen her do. " As i have quoted here from another IMDb user, and to shed some light. Simone Simon NEVER liked this movie. She did NOT like how her character was portrayed (due to censors) and she NEVER had anything to say good about this movie. This would at least explain why her character in this film falls flat for some viewers. She was under contract with RKO and she was friends with and cared a lot for Val Lewton, which explains why she took the role. I enjoy the movie for what it is, and do not read anything deeply dramatic about it. I am a Simone Simon fan so i enjoy the movie at least on that level.Thanks.
MartinHafer
This film is about an idealistic young French woman (Simone Simon) and her refusal to fraternize with her Prussian overlords in occupied France following the French defeat in 1870. It's very obvious that it is meant to be a parallel to the Nazi occupation in France starting in 1940, though in some ways it's NOT a perfect parallel. First, the French stupidly declared war on the Prussians in 1870--making it harder to actually feel sorry for them. Second, the Prussians, at times, seem more like Nazis transported by to 1870.In addition, the film became rather tedious and obvious very quickly and its message was delivered with "sledgehammer symbolism"--in other words, it was hardly subtle. When it appeared in 1944, the film played much better than it does now and I am sure audiences of the day appreciated it much more than I did. My biggest problems aside from the lack of subtlety was that this was a Val Lewton production--the same man who was responsible for a string of wonderful low-budget horror films such as THE BODY SNATCHER, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and THE LEOPARD MAN. This film simply isn't in the same league as those great films--a definite step down for Lewton.
