''Les Dragueurs'' is a 1959 French
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Jean-Pierre Mocky
Jean-Pierre Mocky (6 July 1929 – 8 August 2019), pseudonym of Jean-Paul Adam Mokiejewski, was a French film director, actor, screenwriter and producer.
Life and career
Mocky was born in Nice, France to Polish immigrant parents, Jeanne Zylinska ...
. British actor
Belinda Lee
Belinda Lee (15 June 193512 March 1961) was an English actress.
A profile for the British Film Institute's Screenonline website asserts: "of all the Rank Organisation's starlets, Belinda Lee stands out as the most notorious, yet paradoxically ...
plays a role.
It is also known as ''The Chasers'' (US title), ''The Girl Hunters'', or ''The Young Have No Morals''.
Premise
Two young men, Freddy and Joseph, go out looking for girls one nigh, hoping to find the right girl. They go through a number of different experiences and encounters. Among the women they meet: Denise, who is married, but looking for romance; Sylviane, who clings to old dreams and boyfriends; Dadou, Sylviane's harsh roommate; Ghislaine; a disillusioned hard partier; a bobby soxer; Jeanne, a cripple.
Cast
*
Jacques Charrier
Jacques Charrier (born 6 November 1936) is a French actor in both film and the theater, a film producer, and an artist in painting and ceramics. He was married to film actress Brigitte Bardot from 1959 to 1963.
Biography
In 1980 he returned to ...
as Freddy
*
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour ( , ; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, hy, Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրեան, ; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his dist ...
as Joseph Bouvier
*
Dany Robin
Dany Robin (; 14 April, 1927 – 25 May, 1995) was a French actress of the 1950s and the 1960s.
Career
Robin was born Danielle Robin in Clamart. She performed with Peter Sellers in ''The Waltz of the Toreadors'', and co-starred opposite Kirk D ...
as Denise
*
Dany Carrel
Yvonne Suzanne Chazelles de Chaxel, better known as Dany Carrel, (born 20 September 1932 or 20 September 1935) is a French actress. She was born in Vietnam - then French Indochina - to French father Aimé Chazelles de Chaxel and his Vietnamese mi ...
as Dadou
*
Estella Blain
Estella Blain (born Micheline Estellat; 30 March 1930 – 1 January 1982) was a French actress. She appeared in more than twenty films from 1954 to 1981. She played the lead role in Hervé Bromberger's 1954 film ''Wild Fruit
''Wild Fruit'' ( Fren ...
as Sylviane
*
Anouk Aimée
Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus (born 27 April 1932), known professionally as Anouk Aimée () or Anouk, is a French film actress, who has appeared in 70 films since 1947, having begun her film career at age 14. In her early years, she studi ...
as Jeanne
*
Belinda Lee
Belinda Lee (15 June 193512 March 1961) was an English actress.
A profile for the British Film Institute's Screenonline website asserts: "of all the Rank Organisation's starlets, Belinda Lee stands out as the most notorious, yet paradoxically ...
as Ghislaine
*
Nicole Berger
Nicole Berger (born Nicole Gouspeyre,''Le Vrai Nom des stars'' de Michel Bracquart - M.A. Editions - 1989 12 June 1934 – 13 April 1967) was a French actress.
Biography
Berger was born in Paris. She had a brief theatrical career, particularly ...
as Françoise
* Véronique Nordey as La bobby-soxer
*
Ingeborg Schöner
Ingeborg Schöner is a German film and television actress.
Selected filmography
* ''The Silent Angel'' (1954)
* '' The Dark Star'' (1955)
* '' The Captain and His Hero'' (1955)
* '' The First Day of Spring'' (1956)
* ''King in Shadow'' (1957)
...
as Monica
*
Margit Saad as Ingrid
*
Gérard Darrieu
Gérard Darrieu (1925–2004) was a French actor.
Selected filmography
*1950: ''Three Telegrams'' (directed by Henri Decoin) - Jeune dragueur
*1951: ''Juliette, or Key of Dreams'' - Un prisonnier (uncredited)
*1951: ''Boîte de nuit'' - Le gr ...
as Un ami de Freddy
Production
It was one of a series of sexually aggressive characters Belinda Lee played in European movies.
Reception
''Variety'' said the director "has filled this with some fairly acute observation on pickups and Paris nightlife, with a wild party also thrown in. It is sometimes sketchy and one-track but has exploitation handles on its looksee of Paris at night." The reviewer added that he felt the two leads "give body to the roles of the two searchers. The women remain facets of the female pysche. However, they are all lookers and dress up the pic. Technical credits and production values are fine, with on-the-spot lensing a help. This is an offbeater with possibilities for offshore specialized programs.
The film was released in New York in 1960 as ''The Chasers''. The ''New York Times'' called it "a bittersweet, faintly tragic and sardonic romantic drama. However, as inventive, striking fare it is, basically, just another ripple in the veritable inundation of 'new wave' of features turned out by France's youthful filmmakers."
The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' said it "had its points of interest."
It was released in LA in 1963 as ''The Girl Chasers''.
['Girl Chasers' at Two Theaters
Los Angeles Times 10 Apr 1963: C15. ]
References
External links
*
Les Drageursat BFI
1959 drama films
1959 films
French drama films
1950s French-language films
Films directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky
1950s French films
{{1950s-France-film-stub