Krin Gabbard requests:
 
 
> A colleague is collecting American movies in which one or more characters
> speak French on screen.  He is especially interested in films that give
> Francophone characters a pronounced positive or negative delineation.  For
> example, in _The Seduction of Joe Tynan_, the old senator played by Ed
> Begley begins reciting French when he has clearly lost his mind.  In _South
> Pacific_, on the other hand, speaking French is definitely the thing to do,
> the reason Nellie Forbush laments that "He's a cultured Frenchman, I'm a
> little hick."
> Any other examples of ways that Hollywood has strongly marked those who
> speak French?
 
Although he usually spoke *English* with a pronounced accent, Maurice
Chevalier made an entire career in American films (not counting his
French films) out of this trait, from LOVE ME TONIGHT to GIGI.  Charles
Boyer was similarly marked--from ALGIERS to BAREFOOT IN THE PARK.
 
Truffaut himself is the earnest UFOlogist in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE
THIRD KIND.
 
Indiana Jones' evil archrival is French in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
 
Georges Guetary is a noble rival who builds a stairway to Paradise in
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
 
Bill Murray attempts to seduce Andie MacDowell by learning to speak
French in GROUNDHOG DAY.
 
Fernando Ray's "Frog 1" is a charming villain in THE FRENCH CONNECTION.
 
Preston Sturges attempts to make farce of British-French relations in
THE FRENCH, THEY ARE A FUNNY RACE.
 
You might even consider Lainie Kazan welcoming Peter O'Toole to her
"chapeau" in MY FAVORITE YEAR or the pretensions of Shelly Winters as
Mrs. Haze in Kubrick's LOLITA.
 
Other comic renditions of fractured "French" include Peter
Sellers as Inspector Clousseau in the PINK PANTHER movies and Chuck
Jones's Pepe Le Pew.
 
And I believe it is French (rather than Italian?) that sends Morticia
into ecstasy when Gomez speaks it in THE ADDAMS FAMILY TV show and
films.
 
Don Larsson
 
 
----------------------
Donald Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)
[log in to unmask]
 
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