Mademoiselle Fifi (1944)

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In occupied France during the Franco-Prussian War, a young French laundress shares a coach ride with several of her condescending "social superiors." But when a Prussian officer holds the coach over, social standings are leveled and integrity and spirit are put to the test.

Director: Robert Wise. Assistant Director: Sam Ruman. Script: Josef Mischel, Peter Ruric. Based on two stories, Boule de Suif and Mademoiselle Fifi by Guy de Maupassant. Photography: Harry Wild. Editor: J.R. Whittredge. Art Directors: Albert S. D'Agostino, Walter E. Keller. Set Decorators: Darrell Silvera, Al Fields. Special Effects: Vernon L. Walker. Music: Werner Heymann. Musical Director: C. Bakaleinikoff. Songs: 'Three Captains' (sung in French by Elizabeth); 'Drinking Song' (sung by men, in German). Costumes: Edward Stevenson. Sound Recordist: Francis M. Sarver. Sound Re-recordist: James G. Stewart.

Simone Simon (Elizabeth Rousset), John Emery (Jean Cornudet), Kurt Kreuger (Lt. von Eyrick, called 'Fifi'), Alan Napier (Count de Breville), Helen Freeman (Countess de Breville), Jason Robards Sr. (Wholesaler in Wines), Norma Varden (Wholesaler's Wife), Romaine Callender (Manufacturer), Fay Helm (Manufacturer's Wife), Edmund Glover (Young Priest), Charles Waldron (Cure of Cleresville), Mayo Newhall (M. Follenvie), Lillian Bronson (Mme. Follenvie), Alan Ward (Coach Driver), Daun Kennedy (Maid), William Von Wymetal (The Major), Max Willenz (The Captain), Marc Cramer (The Lieutenant), John Good (Fritz), Allan Lee (Hostler), Frank Mayo (Sgt. at Inn), Margaret Landry (Eva), Rosemary La Planche (Amanda), Marie Lund (Helene), Margie Stewart (Pamela), Violet Wilson (Aunt Marie), Tom Burton and Steve Winston (Uhlans), Paul Marion (Devoir), Ed Allen (Soldier), Richard Drumm (German Sentry), Victor Cutler (Soldier Waiter).

Notes:

• Censorship worries changed Elizabeth from a prostitute into a laundress and changed the Prussian officers demand to sleep with her into a demand to have a private dinner with her.
• Many ties were drawn to WWII, and despite being somewhat unkind to the French middle-class, this was the first American film to be shown in France after the Normandy invasion.
• The classic Western Stagecoach was also based in part on Guy de Maupassant's Boule de Suif.
• To capture an authentic period look, costumes and props such as the diligence (carriage) were modeled on drawings of French artists of the period, such as Honore Daumier.
• Here is a paragraph from the Guy de Maupassant story Mademoiselle Fifi, explaining how the Prussian soldier acquired that nickname:
  Since he had been in France, his comrades had called him nothing but "Mademoiselle Fifi". They had given him that nickname on account of his dandified style and small waist, which looked as if he wore stays, from his pale face, on which his budding mustache scarcely showed, and on account of the habit he had acquired of employing the French expression fi fi donc, which he pronounced with a slight whistle, when he wished to express his sovereign contempt for persons or things.
• Etext of Guy de Maupassant's Mademoiselle Fifi is at the Electronic Text Library at the University of Virginia. Links to etext of many Maupassant stories (in French, although many also have English translations) are collected by Thierry Selva on his page.
• The AFI OnLine tribute to Robert Wise has pages on Mademoiselle Fifi with pictures, film clips, and much information.

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