lchadbou-326-26592 Review of Courrier Sud

Courrier Sud (1937)

Little Known if Uneven French Exoticist Adventure Has Special Moments

[6/10 · 24 October 2020]

Courrier Sud as a portrait of air mail pilots is not exactly Only Angels Have Wings, and it suffers from way too much time spent on the romantic subplot involving the often stiff Pierre Richard Willm with Jany Holt.But as an effort by the underrated craftsman Pierre Billon it has some extraordinary moments and features interestingly: a story by beloved Saint Exupery, with contributions from the then unknown Robert Bresson, and one of those rich casts of 1930s era French actors who are now sadly forgotten. The standout job is from Marguerite Pierry as maiden aunt Sophie, who abets Holt's attempt to escape the husband and run away.Pierry has a role that might have gone in a Hollywood film to someone like Helen Broderick or Agnes Moorhead and she leaves a haunting impression. (In real life Pierry had wanted to be a schoolteacher not an actress) In a smaller role, as the nasty proprietress of the boarding house Pierry puts Holt into, none other than the wife of Darius Milhaud. Colleen Kennedy Karpat who wrote a useful 2013 scholarly study on the French exoticist/colonialist genre this film belongs to, does not seem to have been aware of the obscure Courrier Sud.