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Pierre Chenal's La Maison du Maltais was released outside of France as House of the Maltese and Sirocco. The film represented the starring debut of Marcel Dalio after several years' faithful supporting-cast service. Dalio plays Matteo, a young Tunisian native who makes his living telling stories to the tourists in the "pleasure district" of the portside city of Sfax. He also sidelines as a petty thief, and it is in this capacity that he meets good-time girl Safia (Vivienne Romance), whom he eventually marries and whisks off to Paris. After a while, Safia tires of Matteo's irresponsibility, but with a baby on the way she can't very well leave him. The solution to her problem arrives in the portly shape of kindly anthropologist Chervin (Pierre Renoir).