When At First You Practice To Deceive-Max Ophuls’ The Earrings Of Madame de… (1953)

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

The Earrings Of Madame de, starring Charles Boyer, Daniele Darrieux, Vittorio Desica, directed by Max Ophuls, 1953

There are plenty of things that films, especially older films can do to portray various aspects of the lives of people who have inhabited this wicked old world. The film under review, Max Ophuls’ The Earrings of Madame de… is almost a perfect expression of the Belle Epoque, the period of peace and stability for the upper crust before the ugly storm of World War I washed away all such illusions that the industrial age would bring unencumbered  progress and benefits to the Western world. To show rather graphically how the ill-thought out consequences of the moral decay of the period would bring the flower of the European youth to its knees before that conflict was over. At another level this film, for those who want to shy away from the political storms, represents an exceptional example of a master filmmaker at work using one simple thread to tell his story, to tell of the consequences of what the headline to this review points out-when you first practice to deceive-watch out for the blowback.   

For those who want to accept the film for its latter view here is how things came to such a nasty personal end. Madame de (and the beauty of this film other than as an example of the decadent French aristocracy is we never learn, never need to learn really the rest of Madame’s surname-a brilliant stroke), played by Daniele Darrieux, a big star of the French cinema in the post-World War II period, a flighty and self-indulgent wife of a count and General in the French Army, played by Charles Boyer, in the post-Paris Commune period was in hock up to her pretty eyebrows to a party (or parties) unknown. To get out from under dear Madame had hocked an expensive pair of earrings that the good General had given her as a heartfelt wedding gift. From there it is a question of following the bouncing ball, following the trail of the earrings and what they mean to the receivers in various contexts.        

Obviously to Madame they did not mean much in that stage of her marriage (she had plenty of other hock-able goods around her boudoir)  since she hocked them and then made up an outrageous story about losing them at the opera. Wrong move. Once the “theft” became public the jeweler who Madame hocked the jewels to got cold feet and sold them to the stiff upper-lipped general a second time. The General, in turn, used them as bait in his rush to get rid of an inconvenient mistress that he had tired of whom he was sending off to Turkey. She, in turn, hocked then when she got in over her head in gambling debts in some Kasbah casino. They were subsequently purchased by a Baron, played by Vittorio DeSica, who was on the way to Paris to take up a diplomatic post. Are you still with me?   

This is where things got dicey. The Baron met and was enchanted by Madame who used every coquettish trick in the book to entice him, and to discard him like an old shoe. Eventually they do become lovers and as a token of that love the kindly Baron gives Madame, you guessed it, the earrings. Problem: she can’t wear the things as a sign of her love for the Baron since the game would be up with the General. So the hair-brained Madame “finds” the missing jewels. Oops. The general already suspicious took the “found” jewels from Madame and confronted the Baron with the truth of Madame’s lies. Get this though. He wanted the Baron to sell them to the now obviously seriously wealthy jeweler so he could buy them a third time and present them yet again to Madame. Meanwhile the Baron seeing what the real picture was bowed, out of the scene. All very civilized, civilized indeed.         

Done, right. Are you kidding. The irate General gave them to Madame but told her to give them to a niece who has just given birth to a child. She, the niece, in turn, sold those freaking earrings to the now over the top rich jeweler to pay off hubby’s debts. The reckless if wealthy jeweler tried to sell them to the General a fourth time but he balked on this one. Madame stepped up to purchase them though after hocking some goods that she could have hocked to begin with. That purchase, that final purchase (at least in the film) was the tripping point for the General knowing that Madame was purchasing the jewels back out of devotion to the Baron. The General decided to confront the Baron with his indiscretions with Madame, with his wife. Such matters of honor were then settled in a very civilized way-divorce court. No, no on the field of honor among gentlemen-a duel. The Baron was doomed but would not back down. As a token trying to save the Baron through some miracle Madame placed the earring as a donation at her church. No go. The Baron caught the westbound train, was killed by the General’s single well-placed bullet. Madame, well, Madame, began to fall apart as usual when any slight or grand thing laid her low. A great film which you really must watch when you get a chance. And remember the moral too.