Jean Boyer

Jean Boyer gave Brigitte Bardot her debut in "Le Trou normand" and Audrey Hepburn her first starring role in "Monte Carlo Baby." Yet he was also one of the great entertainers of French cinema, whose musicals and comedies raised spirits during some of the nation's darkest hours. The son of singer Lucien Boyer, he started out as a songwriter and only began penning screenplays with Abel Gance's "La Fin du monde" in 1931. Boyer began directing with French versions of Lilian Harvey's German musicals, but was soon producing original scenarios like the elopement comedy "Prends la route." After a string of brisk farces -- including "La Chaleur du sein" and "Circonstances atténuantes" with Michel Simon and Arletty -- Boyer struck gold in 1941, when he directed singer Charles Trenet in the perenially popular musical comedy "La Romance de Paris," and teamed for the first time with comic legend Fernandel on "L'Acrobate." The pair would go on to make eight more pictures together, with Fernandel playing a sheep shearer-turned-hairdresser in "Coiffeur pour dames," a tailor who takes over a fashion house in "Le Couturier de ces dames" and a work-shy handyman in "Le Chômeur de Clochemerle." Boyer also had several 1950s hits with Bourvil, who refined his trademark milquetoast persona in "Le Rosier de Madame Husson," which was adapted by Marcel Pagnol from a Maupassant short story, and the walking-through-walls fantasy "Le Passe-muraille." Boyer may never have been the subtlest film-maker, but he remains fondly remembered.