Le Dernier Milliardaire = the Last Millionaire

Le Dernier Milliardaire’ tells the story of a small mythical European country, Casinario, suddenly subjected to the whims of a mad dictator. Tobis Klangfilm refused to bankroll the project on political grounds, worried it could be considered a commentary on Hitler’s recent seizure of power in Germany. (Clair’s script also contained some fairly overt parodic references to Mussolini.) And so the (by now financially ailing) Pathe-Natan company had the bad fortune to produce what most observers consider the one complete failure among all of Clair’s works, a film scorned by audiences and critics alike as unfunny, tasteless, and cinematographically inept, although it is a sheer delight today. Unnerved by this commercial disaster, Clair left France for an artistic exile in England and, during the war years, the United States. It would be thirteen eventful years before his return to the French cinema, as an old master in the postwar ‘Tradition de Qualite’. Reference: Alan Williams. “Republic of Images: a history of French filmmaking”. Harvard University Press, 1992.

Credits: Director, Rene Clair ; writer, Rene Clair ; photography, Rudolph Mate, Louis Nee ; music, Maurice Jaubert ; art direction, Lucien Aguettand, Lucien Carre.
Cast: Max Dearly, Renee Saint-Cyr, Marthe Mellot, Jose Noguero, Charles Redgie, Jean Sinoel, Raymond Cordy, Christian Argentin, Marcel Carpentier.