La présidente

A hilarious comedy , where monstres sacres Elvire Popesco and André Lefaur shine in diametrically opposed characters; there are two or three songs (because of the presence of singer Henri Garat ) but they are mostly filler , and they don't make "la presidente " a musical. Fortunately for it is first-class theâtre de boulevard .

Mistaken identities,quiproquos,absurd situations abound in a mad story , which is also a spoof on the ( 1938?) political world ....

A presiding magistrate (Lefaur) in a provinces town puts virtue and duty above everything; an austere man still waiting for a promotion ,whilst his colleagues have always good prospects ,particularly one of them ,because he's got an attractive wife ....

Unfortunately ,his wife (the excellent Suzanne Dehelly ) is a former cook ,whose only asset is a recipe for chicken .As for his daughter (Micheline Francey ,a habituée of Duvivier's flms) ,she's back from England : she has forgotten her first language and she can only speak English , which does not help the parents who can only communicate with her by signs.... The wife has to leave the house to call on her mom,with her daughter in tow.

Enter Mademoiselle Vetrocha (Popesco),an adventuress who recently caused scandal in the local hotel ; she invites herself in the magistrate's house : she would pass for his wife and she would sleep in his wife's room .

Enter the Minister of justice (Garat ) who congratulates the magistrate for his gorgeous wife and thinks it's a pity he's never had a good promotion ; after a sweet night with the so called wife, he goes out of his way to make him (and her) come to gai Paris.

Then follows a spate of extremely funny situations: in 1938(???) ,the nomination papers can be changed every hour and the principal private secretary resigns after the eighth decree; the magistrate's real wife is mistaken for a cleaning lady and has to polish the stuff before ending in slip on the place de la Concorde,then dressed up like a little girl ,just like Ginger Rogers in "the major and the minor"; there's also a bilingual love scene between her daughter and the minister's collaborator ,helped by a bellboy who does not want to be mistaken for a gay in front of the guests ; Popesco,leaving the minister's bureau with the wastepaper bin on her head ("how strange this new hat fashion in Paris "says the hubby who's not got a clue).

A splendid time is guaranteed for all!