Jean Choux | Un chien qui rapporte (The Dog that Pays Off) / 1932 [in French only]

please return with love

by Douglas Messerli

 

Jean Choux (screenwriter, based on the work of Marcel Gerbidon and Paul Armont, and director) Un chien qui rapporte (The Dog that Pays Off) / 1932 [in French only]

 

Another film I was able to see only in the original language in which I am not entirely fluent, in this case French, The Dog that Pays Off features the wonderful French actor Arletty as a rather indolent chanteuse, Josyane Plaisir who is having difficulty paying her bills for her lovely apartment. When she’s not singing, she spends most of her hours with her women friends, dancers and performers who are far less successful than Josyane.

       Her concierge Mme. Gras (Madeleine Guitty) and her husband visit a dog handler to help arrange a scheme that might solve their tenant’s problem and help make them rich as well. The dog handler insists the singer, convincing her that in order to find men she should borrow his trained dog, who jumps into rich men’s cars, the pet's name and address tied around his neck. When the rich men go to return the dog, recognizing the singer’s name they court her as well, bringing her jewels and other trinkets. So she might also find a rich man to marry, sharing her new wealth with her concierge.

      Of course, there are troubles from the beginning. One of the first courtiers the dog brings home is René Brodart (René Lefèvre), who, although very handsome is even poorer than Josyane. She falls immediately in love with him, but obviously can’t afford to marry such a poor man, accordingly continuing her scheme to get rich.

      The next “man” her cute pup brings home is indeed rich and very handsome, la comtesse de Noyant (Laure Diana), dressed in a man’s riding jacket, books, and a monocle, all symbols of the day of her being a lesbian. She and Josyane, however, do strike up a friendship, and during their tête-à-tête, René comes charging in, furious that his new-found love is hosting another man in her living room. The comtesse, laughing in delight, takes of her hat and lets down her hair to reveal her gender, calming down the young lover.

     But it is also la comtesse who reveals what Josyane is up to by encouraging René to follow the dog and watch its actions. Very soon after the dog has crawled upon the lap of a wealthy businessman, all too ready to return the dog to the lovely owner; the outraged René demands that he hand over the dog immediately to him. And, apparently, he temporarily breaks off his relationship as Josyane begins to rake in pearls and diamonds through visits of wealthy suitors of all sorts, including an Indian raj.

     One of Josyane’s friends, jealous of the singer’s new life, however, steals her dog, and Josyane is heartbroken, now without a possible way to bring in new treasures, although clearly she has now accumulated enough jewels to survive very nicely.

     After dreaming of all the money she will share from Josyane and the dog’s escapades, the concierge, however, recognizes there is only one way to resolve the problem: she contacts René, who returns to Josyane, this time bearing another dog to replace the one she lost.

     Meanwhile, in remorse, the singer’s friend returns the stolen dog and the original owner, the dog handler, pays a visit to claim his animal back, demanding to be paid for its use. Josyane pays him off with a diamond bracelet and turns to kiss her poor lover René, the only man with whom she is truly happy.

     I may have missed some details of the plot or confused elements of the story due to my faulty French, but basically that is the gist of the quite entertaining movie, which also contains some fascinating cinematic elements such as a speed-up of the sound reel, comically making a character speak as if she had ingested helium. In another scene the director reverses the image, at one point even turning it upside down in order to rearrange events as the concierge might wish to imagine them. During the concierge’s dream scenes, the film nicely overlays images, laying them upon one another as in collage. And throughout, the camera is fluid as it follows the comings and goings of the singer’s visitors.

       The fairly long scenes with la comtesse de Noyant are some of the most honest portrayals of a lesbian in early cinema, and unlike Hollywood films the movie does not at all mock her sexuality but fully recognizes and records it. It’s clear that the cigarette-smoking independent mannish woman clearly enjoys her position in life.

 

Los Angeles, July 28, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July 2024).