Don't let the high rating fool you!this is a botched version of Malot's tear jerker!this flick begins with the return of hateful Driscoll in search of Remy the boy he kidnapped some years back!But Remy has already been sold to Vitali ,the busker;so we do not see the brat with his dear Mere Barbarin and we are deprived of the celebrated scene of the crepes;ditto for the scenes on the "Cygne" where Remy does not even meet Mrs Mullligan ,he is rebuffed by her sinister-looking butler(Daniel Emilfork,wasted one more time).
Gino Cervi is a bad Vitalis:he appears at first as a severe unkind man -he never was in the novel-before showing his finer feelings;Bernard Blier is too gentle for the part of Garofoli;the kid playing Remi cannot hold a candle to Robert Lynen in Allégret's version ;Simone Renant has almost nothing to do;the only one who plays his game well is Pierre Brasseur:realizing how stodgy and disastrous the screenplay was,he opts for tongue in chick acting and he and his hideous wife are the only characters that attract the attention.There are plenty of music numbers but the last one,a syrupy Christmas carol,drowns the final in an ocean of schmaltz.
