Movielogr
Girls in Distress (1939)
Directed by G.W. Pabst
Overview
Jeune Filles en Detresse (Young Girls in Distress) was director G. W. Pabst’s last French production before his (ill-timed) return to Nazi-occupied Austria in 1941. Somewhat reminiscent of Maedchen in Uniform, the story is set in a private girl’s school, populated almost exclusively by children from broken homes. Among the few students who can claim family stability is Micheline Presle, but even her happiness is threatened when her lawyer father Andre Luguet inaugurates an affair with stage actress Jacqueline Debulac. With the help of Debulac’s daughter Louisa Carletti, Presle is able to break up her father’s romance and deliver him into the open arms of her mother Marcelle Chantal. On the whole, the performance by the younger cast members are more convincing than those rendered by the film’s so-called adults.
Length 90 minutes
Actors
Marcelle Chantal | Jacqueline Delubac | André Luguet | Micheline Presle | Louise Carletti | Ariane Muratore | Barbara Shaw | Claude Lehmann | Gaston Jacquet | Georges Jamin | Merly | Marcel Lupovici | Pierre Nay | Christiane Ribes | Noëlle Norman | Sinoël | Paulette Élambert | Gabrielle Robinne | Pierre Bertin | Arthur Devère | Nane Germon | Robert Pizani | Milly Mathis | Margo Lion | Marguerite Moreno | Jean Aquistapace | Liliane Barnassin | Hélène Bellanger | Ariane Borg | Victoria Carletti | Jacqueline Daniel | Monique Dantis | Marguerite de Morlaye | Genevieve Dorlane | Antoinette Ferlay | Michel François | René Génin | Madeleine Lebeau | Rosine Luguet | Mlle Malakowsky | Robert Manuel | Marthe Mellot | Christiane Rombaldo | Germaine Stainval | Monique Thibaut | Solange Turenne | Génia Vaury | Georges Vitray | Yvonne Yma