Occupe-Toi d'Amelie (1949)

Synopsis
This French comedy was released variously in the U.S. as Look After Amelie and Oh, Amelia. The eponymous heroine, played by Danielle Darrieux, is the potential bride of playboy Marcel (Jean Dessally). He wants to marry her to land an inheritance. Marcel's plans are blown to bits when Amelie falls in love with a dashing prince (Aslan). These and all other plot convolutions are based on a 19th-century stage farce: indeed, Amelie, Marcel et. al. are presented as actors appearing in a production of that play. As the plot rolls merrily along, director Autant-Lara contrives to have members of the audiences climb on stage and participate in the action, resulting in a finale that wasn't in the script. Coming right after Autant-Lara's grim romantic melodrama Le Diable au Corps, Occupe-Toi D'Amelie was apparently the director's own method of letting his hair down. The film represented the return to the screen of Danielle Darrieux, who'd only recently exonerated herself from a charge of collaborating with the Nazis during the Occupation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide