Frenchman's Creek (1944)

Frenchman's Creek is a 1944 adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier novel (about an aristocratic English woman who falls in love with a French pirate), released by Paramount Pictures. The film starred Joan Fontaine, Arturo de Córdova, Basil Rathbone, Cecil Kellaway, and Nigel Bruce. Filmed in Technicolor, it was directed by Mitchell Leisen. The musical score was by Victor Young, who incorporated the main theme of French composer Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune as the love theme for the film.

The film is a mostly faithful adaptation of the novel, taking place during the reign of Charles II in the mid seventeenth century, mostly in the Cornish region of England.

Fontaine was under contract to independent producer to David O. Selznick, who only produced a few films each year. Typically, he loaned out his contract players and director Alfred Hitchcock (who had a contract with Selznick from 1940 to 1947) to other studios. In this case, Fontaine was loaned to Paramount for this lavish production. She later complained about her work with director Leisen and some of her costars.

Although the film has not been released on DVD, it has been shown on American Movie Classics.

Synopsis

L'élégante Dona St Columb s'ennuie à mourir dans sa vie londonienne trop balisée. Elle cherche surtout à échapper aux propositions inconvenantes du meilleur ami de son mari, lord Rockingham. Elle prend ses cliques et ses claques et s'en va s'installer dans son château de Cornouaille. Elle y fait la connaissance d'un corsaire français, Jean Benoit Aubrey. Rien ne semble pouvoir rapprocher ces deux êtres que tout, patrie, origines et formation, sépare. Pourtant, l'amour les unit bientôt, au point de placer Dona St Columb devant un choix difficile...

Actors