Quadrille
Director: Sacha Guitry
Year Released: 1938
Rating: 3.0
French sex farce from wordsmith Guitry has the auteur himself cuckolded by his wife (with a pushy lothario ... who also happens to be an American actor), only to confront said wife, have her talk her way out of it and have Guitry resolve it with a great deal of restraint (he's just going to sleep around, too!). It's true that Guitry's films rarely escaped the influence of the stage and it's also true that he has a tendency to let his dialogue run on and on, but when the dialogue is as fun and snappy as he (generally) makes it, it's hard to complain, especially with modern films that sound like they were written by people who have never had a captivating conversation in their entire lives. Helping too is the focus on sexual politics: here, womanizer Guitry is the victim of a cheating wife (instead of him being the run-around), which he handles with intelligence, a slick grin and a damn fine-looking suit.
