Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

LE MILLION 185 of Michel — who all this time have been making whoopee at his expense — learn of his distress and arrive in a body to bail him out. The action shifts to the Opera, where there are now gathered all the rival pursuers of the coat — Michel, Prosper, Beatrice, Vanda (Michel's mistress), as well as the whole gang of crooks led by the original thief in disguise. Every device to filch the coat fails, and the chase is continued on to the stage itself in the middle of the first act. Even then the garment eludes capture until in the end — at the last minute of Michel's despair — the ticket turns up in the waistcoat pocket of the crook leader and all ends happily. From the opening shot gliding over the roofs of Paris and the sound of a striking clock growing louder, reminiscent of Sous les toils de Paris, to the final dance of ecstatic joy in Michel's and Prosper 's studio, the film moves swiftly forward with a beautiful fluidity. So cleverly is the action arranged and so smooth is the technique that incident succeeds incident with marvellous rapidity and sureness. The continuity of he Million provides as great a contrast to the slow-motion development of most present-day American and British speech films as could be imagined. And when heightened by Clair's abundant wit and delightful sense of humour, the film achieves a value which places it on a level of its own. The treatment of every sequence compels our attention, not only by its surface humour but by its undercurrent of satire. The scene in the police-station, when Michel is trying to explain the theft of his coat, is a subtle commentary on French law and order. In