The Treasure of Cantenac

The Treasure of Cantenac (1950)

Run Time - 105 min.  |   Countries - France  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

The second of Sacha Guitry's four 1950 offerings was Le Tresor de Cantenac. Once again, Guitry not only wrote and directed the film, but reserved himself a leading role, in this case Baron de Cantenac. Set in a rundown French village where everyone is related to everyone else (sometimes at the expense of chromosomes and brain matter!), the film is a series of vignettes illustrating the foibles of the human condition. The Baron de Cantenac, on the verge of suicide after losing his fortune, decides to take one last journey through the crumbling town. While ambling about, the baron is befriended by the town's oldest citizen, who reveals a royal treasure that he has been jealously guarding for years. The money enables the town to get back on its feet, and also has some very surprising effects on the citizenry. Amazingly, this fully realized paean to the recuperative powers of wealth was made on a skin-tight budget, even by French standards. Le Tresor de Cantenac was produced by Boris Morros, the former Hollywood musical director who'd previously produced Laurel & Hardy's Flying Deuces and Fred Astaire's Second Chorus, and who soon would figure in a real-life espionage adventure.

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Keywords

baron [nobility], treasure, village, suicide