A film that has a promising beginning but becomes rather tedious and tiresome.
The previous reviewer has suggested that the premature death of leading man Henri Vidal paved the way for Delon and Belmondo. That is highly debatable! Vidal's performance here is enhanced by the chemistry between him and his ravishing co-star Mylene Demongeot. The 1950's were to prove by far the best period for this irresistible and talented actress. Roger Hanin is marvellously menacing as the villain and his persona was to be used to great effect as the homosexual boxing promoter in Visconti's 'Rocco and his Brothers'. Alain Delon had made his debut for Marc Allegret's brother Yves in 'When the Devil fails...' and would go on to become with the help of Clement, Visconti and Antonioni, a very fine actor in spite of his good looks. As for Darry Cowl, although one can admire his comedy timing his particular brand of buffoonery has never been to my taste but that is just my opinion. This film has been lumbered with the title 'Blonde for Danger' and one can only surmise that the original 'Be beautiful and shut up' would not have gone down too well with non-European audiences. The history of Cinema is littered with films that should have been 'better' and this I'm afraid, is one of them.
4 Reviews
The inspector and the young woman.
zutterjp4824 April 2020
A film build on the meeting of a young woman who escaped from a reformatory and joined a band of small smugglers and a police inspector who is in charge of the investigation of a jewelry robbery in Paris.Virginie helped his young friends to escape from the police and is arrested.Then begins a play between Jean and Virginie which ends in a very convenient wedding for Virginie.But during the weeding she is still contact with her friends the smugglers. Some good moments (when Jean discovers that Virginie is an acrobatic woman).
Last comment: the presence of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon at the beginning of there careers.
Only the cast makes that watchable today.
dbdumonteil1 January 2004
Marc Allégret began his career in the late twenties ,but he's remembered for "Fanny"(1932) (but it's mainly Marcel Pagnol's work) and "entrée des artistes"(1938) (but it's mainly Louis Jouvet's performance that' s worth the price of admission).His brother,Yves -who was Simone Signoret's first husband- Allégret gave more memorable works (such as "une si jolie petite plage" "manèges" or "les orgueilleux").
"Sois belle et tais-toi" epitomizes the worst of the French cinema de qualité before the nouvelle vague -one should never forget that there was a great great cinema de qualité with such directors as Clouzot,Duvivier,Decoin,Becker and even Delannoy-;it remains enjoyable -I pass over in silence the screenplay which final line (the title: stay pretty and shut up)will infuriate the feminists-because of the cast:
1.The first time Delon and Belmondo played together (there were three movies in all ,the others being "Borsalino" (1970) and "une chance sur deux" (1998)) just before the time they became the biggest French superstars of the sixties.
2.One of Henri Vidal's last part:he was the fifties' most popular actor and his death in 1960 would make way for his two young supporting actors.
3.Mylène Demongeot was not lucky:they tried to make her a new Brigitte Bardot and there was no room for two ,so her career suffered accordingly.One should note that M.Allegret had already directed B. Bardot just before "sois belle et tais-toi" ,in "en effeuillant la marguerite".
4.Other actors include Roger Hanin ,François Mitterrand's brother-in-law ,and comic actor Darry Cowl.
"Sois belle et tais-toi" epitomizes the worst of the French cinema de qualité before the nouvelle vague -one should never forget that there was a great great cinema de qualité with such directors as Clouzot,Duvivier,Decoin,Becker and even Delannoy-;it remains enjoyable -I pass over in silence the screenplay which final line (the title: stay pretty and shut up)will infuriate the feminists-because of the cast:
1.The first time Delon and Belmondo played together (there were three movies in all ,the others being "Borsalino" (1970) and "une chance sur deux" (1998)) just before the time they became the biggest French superstars of the sixties.
2.One of Henri Vidal's last part:he was the fifties' most popular actor and his death in 1960 would make way for his two young supporting actors.
3.Mylène Demongeot was not lucky:they tried to make her a new Brigitte Bardot and there was no room for two ,so her career suffered accordingly.One should note that M.Allegret had already directed B. Bardot just before "sois belle et tais-toi" ,in "en effeuillant la marguerite".
4.Other actors include Roger Hanin ,François Mitterrand's brother-in-law ,and comic actor Darry Cowl.
Trivial film destined to be remembered only as an answer to a trivia question
gridoon202415 May 2023
If you asked a movie buff what's the first time those two legends of French cinema Alain Delon and Jean Paul Belmondo appeared together on the screen, 9 people out of 10 would probably answer "Borsalino", in 1970. Wrong! Their first teaming, albeit in supporting roles, was in "Be Beautiful And Shut Up!", all the way back in 1958; Belmondo's character is even, rather prophetically, called Pierrot! (but not Le Fou). That's really the one of the only two points of interest of this movie; the other is as a showcase for young sexpot Mylene Demongeot, who, like her contemporaries Brigitte Bardot and Francoise Arnoul, was allowed to tease the viewers with almost complete nudity, under the more permissive French cinema rules. Other than that, the story of this movie is hard to follow and even harder to care about following; the fact that there were at least five different writers probably accounts for the confusion. *1/2 out of 4.
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