''Naughty Girl'' (french: Cette sacrée gamine), also released as ''Mam'zelle Pigalle'', is a 1956 French

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

musical film starring

Brigitte Bardot Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a former French actress, singer and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the ...

Plot

Handsome cabaret entertainer Jean Clery is engaged to his psychiatrist, Lili. He sings at a nightclub owned by Paul Latour which is being used as a front for a gang of forgers. Paul has been framed and decides to go to Switzerland to find out who is really behind this. He has a daughter, Brigitte, who is at finishing school and thinks he is a shipbuilder. Paul asks Jean to retrieve Brigitte from school and look after her for a few days so she is not caught up in the police investigation. Jean collects Brigitte pretending to be her uncle and keeps her at his apartment. While there, Brigitte causes chaos, upsetting Jean's butler, starting a fire, getting arrested for swearing and winding up in prison, and causing troubles with Jean's engagement to Lili. Eventually Brigitte and Jean fall in love and the real crooks are caught.

Cast

as Brigitte Latour *

Jean Bretonnière Jean Bretonnière (1924–2001) was a French actor and singer.Goble p.36 He was married to the actress Geneviève Kervine. Selected filmography * '' Under the Sky of Paris'' (1951) * '' The Green Glove'' (1952) * ''It Happened in Aden'' (1954) ...

as Jean Clery *

Françoise Fabian Michèle Cortes (born 10 May 1933), known professionally as Françoise Fabian (), is a French film actress. She has appeared in more than 100 films since 1956. In 1971, Fabian signed the Manifesto of the 343, publicly declaring having had an ab ...

as Lili Rocher-Villedieu *

Raymond Bussières Raymond Bussières (3 November 1907 – 29 April 1982) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 160 films between 1933 and 1982. He was born in Ivry-la-Bataille and died in Paris. He is buried in Marchenoir. He was married to the ac ...

as Jérôme *

Mischa Auer Mischa Auer (born Mikhail Semyonovich Unkovsky (Михаил Семёнович Унковский; 17 November 1905 – 5 March 1967) was a Russian-born American actor who moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. He first appeared in film in 1928 ...

as Igor (ballet master) *

Michel Serrault Michel Serrault (24 January 1928 – 29 July 2007) was a French stage and film actor who appeared from 1954 until 2007 in more than 130 films. Life and career His first professional job was in a touring production in Germany of Molière's '' Les ...

as 2nd Inspector *

Jean Poiret Jean Poiret, born Jean Poiré (17 August 1926 – 14 March 1992), was a French actor, director, and screenwriter. He is primarily known as the author of the original play '' La Cage aux Folles''. Early career Poiret was born in Paris, and f ...

as First Inspector *

Jean Lefebvre Jean Marcel Lefebvre (3 October 1919Some sources indicate he was born in 1922. – 9 July 2004) was a French film actor. His erratic studies were interrupted by World War II. Taken prisoner and then requisitioned as a laborer, he escaped to joi ...

as Jérôme's pal *

Darry Cowl Darry Cowl (born André Darricau; 27 August 1925 – 14 February 2006) was a French comedian, actor and musician. He won a César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 2004 for his role as a concierge in '' Pas sur la bouche'' (''Not on ...

as Man with Suitcase *

Bernard Lancret Bernard Lancret (4 September 1912 – 5 September 1983) was a French film actor. He appeared in over thirty films between 1935 and 1956 in a mixture of leading and supporting roles. He played the composer Franz Schubert in the 1940 film '' Séré ...

as Paul Latour *

Marcel Charvey Marcel may refer to: People * Marcel (given name), people with the given name Marcel * Marcel (footballer, born August 1981), Marcel Silva Andrade, Brazilian midfielder * Marcel (footballer, born November 1981), Marcel Augusto Ortolan, Brazilian s ...

as Louis Dubrey *

Lucien Raimbourg Lucien Raimbourg (1903–1973) was a French film, stage and television actor. He appeared in the original performance of Samuel Beckett's '' Waiting for Godot''.Blair p.421 Selected filmography * ''L'affaire est dans le sac'' (1932) - Le client ...

as Older inspector Dupuis *

Robert Rollis Robert Rollis (16 March 1921 - 6 November 2007) was a French actor. He mainly starred as a film actor, but also appeared in television and also in theatre in the 1950s and early 1960s. Amongst many roles, he starred in Yves Robert's '' War of th ...

as Gendarme

Production

According to Roger Vadim, producer Mr Senaumd had mostly made

B movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feat ...

s. The producer had heard of a successful last minute rewrite Vadim did on ''Julietta'' and asked Vadim to perform a similar function on this film, which had been sold to Italy, but whose script star Jean Bretonniere did not like. Vadim agreed provided his then-wife Brigitte Bardot was cast as the female lead and if Michel Boisrond,

René Clair René Clair (11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He wen ...

's first assistant director, would direct. Vadim later wrote "for the first time, Brigitte played a character written for her, in modern language; and she had a classically trained director who was making his first film." He called the movie "a French equivalent of a

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sent ...

movie but with a bolder, more liberated edge."

Reception

Box office

The film was a box-office hit in France, being the 12th most popular movie of the year. It was slightly more popular than '' And God Created Woman'' which Vadim directed later that year.

Critical

The ''Observer'' wrote that the director "has learnt the knack of raising a simple laugh, not yet the art of touching heart and mind." The ''Los Angeles Times'' praised the "tight, high speed direction." The ''New York Times'' wrote that the film:

Is full of slapstick and clumsy farce, and some oldish and splashy dance numbers. But it never piles up its effects in any one direction. Instead it keeps shifting key, from romance to melodrama to light comedy, back and forth. It presents nothing that can take the place of a serious study of Miss Bardot's form... The direction by Michael Boisrond seems rather fuzzy about whether or not ''Mam'zelle Pigalle'' should be a broad take-off on a Hollywood romantic melodrama. At the end, however, it seems this was the intention.Review of film
at ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''

References

External links

* *
review of movie
at ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''
Trailer of film
at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

{{Roger Vadim 1956 films French musical comedy films CinemaScope films 1950s French films 1956 musical comedy films