FANNY

Joshua Logan's film of "Fanny" began life as Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles Trilogy, (Fanny, Marius and Cesar, the three films that made up that trilogy), later condensed to a Broadway musical which Logan directed. This film version arrived in 1961, keeping the musical's structure but minus the (not particularly memorable) songs and it's a sentimental triumph. It's set in Marseilles and tells the story of Fanny, the 18 year old daughter of a fish-seller, Marius, the boy she loves, Cesar, Marius' father and Panisse, the old sail-maker who marries Fanny to give her illegitimate child by Marius, a name after Marius has gone off to sea, unaware that he is to be a father.

For this version Logan was canny enough to cast Charles Boyer as Cesar, Maurice Chevallier as Panisse and Leslie Caron as Fanny and a largely French supporting cast. The German-born Horst Buchholz is Marius and although he never sounds French, for once he doesn't disgrace himself. However, Caron, Boyer and especially Chevallier are outstanding. Boyer picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Actor though personally I think it should have gone to a hardly ever better Chevallier. Caron, too, was unlucky enough to miss out on a Best Actress nomination although the film was nominated for Best Picture.


I've always felt Logan was among the most underrated of great American directors, (Truffaut was a big fan). He worked largely in musicals and melodramas but never achieved the critical adulation heaped on Minnelli; not that he was ever in Minnelli's class. Still, he produced some sterling work, if no actual masterpieces. "Fanny", long unseen, is definitely one of his best films.