A Man Has Been Stolen

1934 film

13 March 1934 (1934-03-13)

Running time

102 minutesCountryFranceLanguageFrench

A Man Has Been Stolen (French: On a volé un homme) is a 1934 French comedy thriller film directed by Max Ophüls and starring Lili Damita, Henri Garat and Raoul Marco.^[1]

It was shot at the Joinville Studios in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director Max Heilbronner. The film was produced by Erich Pommer, recently escaped from Nazi-controlled Germany,^[2] for the European subsidiary of Fox Film. Many of the filmmakers employed were refugees from Nazi Germany.

Pommer also produced another film simultaneously Liliom, a romance film directed by Fritz Lang. Ophüls later suggested that he felt that the two directors had each been assigned to the wrong production "had we exchanged the films Lang most likely would have made an extraordinary mystery and I a very good romantic comedy".^[3] Neither film was very successful at the box office.^[4] It is now a lost film.^[5]

Synopsis

A millionaire is kidnapped, but begins to fall in love with the woman keeping him prisoner.

Cast

Lili Damita as Annette
Henri Garat as Jean de Lafaye
Raoul Marco as Inspector
Charles Fallot as Victor
Lucien Callamand as Legros
Nina Myral as Old Woman
Pierre Labry as Balafre
Fernand Fabre as Robert
Robert Goupil as Legros
Pierre Piérade as Remy
Guy Rapp
André Siméon

References

^ Hardt p.142
^ Hardt p.138-39
^ Hardt p.142-43
^ Williams p.211
^ Williams, Alan Larson. (1992). Republic of images : a history of French filmmaking. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-76267-3. OCLC 24106528.

Bibliography

Hardt, Ursula. From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars. Berghahn Books, 1996.
Williams, Alan L. Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking. Harvard University Press, 1992.