"Caroline Chérie " was a blockbuster in the early fifties ;it put Martine Carol on the map;despised by the highbrows,it is nonetheless a very entertaining movie by Richard Pottier ,with plenty of fine lines written by Jean Anouilh;it was so successful that it spawned two sequels ,the second of which did not even feature Martine Carol.
So why a remake ? Probably because the producers wanted to capitalize on the success of the "Angelique Marquise Des Anges " saga ,which was a colossal success in the mid-sixties.
Let's put it straight:this remake was a fiasco,artistically and commercially.The star ,France Anglade ,was another BB clone trying to imitate Michèle "Angélique" Mercier ,but in the whole movie ,she remains a bimbo ,always overtaken by events .
Unlike the 1950 work ,it was filmed in Franscope ("on a giant screen " claimed the theaters at the time) and Eastmancolor ,but directing is poor,thin and mean and lacking in real positive energy and wit.The screenplay is botched :the original version had a running time of 140 min,its remake is boiled down to 96 min.The episodes do not make it as a whole,and because the censorship was more indulgent in the late sixties, they have all the same purpose :to see Caroline give in to male desire:there is some very furtive nudity ,and a little harpsichord tune is heard every time the heroine,willy-nilly,makes love. The supporting actors ,all superior to the star of the movie,seem to put on their usual little act before collecting their money.However Françoise Christophe is as impressive as Germaine Kerjean ,in the unsympathetic part of La Chabanne;Karin Dor is more attractive than Anglade and why Gaston chooses to save Caroline is a mystery in that context;not only Charles Aznavour appears ,cast against type,as the randy postilion,but he also writes the fine song which is heard during the cast and credits at the end of the movie :his usual collaborator Georges Gavarentz ,wrote the tune as well as the film score.
In short: Richard Pottier's Caroline:yes!Denys De La Patellière's :no!
