Zappy Max

In French Algeria, after WWII, three daughters of wealthy settlers begin their adult lives. Zon marries an often absent sailor. Malene's husband, Gildas, refuses to work in the farm, so she has to take care of everything. Gritte, the youngest, does not want to marry and is a nurse for the natives. We will follow their three different destinies.

A young girl, Christiane, leaves her family to join friends with whom she intends to "make a life". Two boys, Jo and Paul, look after the heroine, whose relations seem rather shady. Jo, a guide in a tourist agency specializing in nightlife in Paris, has a "shadow" of his own in the scatterbrained Annette, who is determined to marry him. While touring the capital's cabarets, Jo meets a model, Jacynthe, and her photographer, Daniel, as well as a star, Jackie, and her manager, Helios. The latter organizes a mock jewel robbery for publicity purposes, with Jackie as the victim. But contrary to expectations, the robbery takes place.

The cruel and abusive headmaster of a boarding school, Michel Delassalle, is murdered by an unlikely duo -- his meek wife and the mistress he brazenly flaunts. The women become increasingly unhinged by a series of odd occurrences after Delassalle's corpse mysteriously disappears.

Suppose lost and found objects could talk... But they can! At least four of them... : -A statuette of Osiris remembers how two ex-lovers, a model and a good for nothing who claimed to be an Egyptologist, met again one Christmas Eve. -A violin has things to say about Raoul, a humble policeman who lost Solange, a widowed grocer he loved, to a god-dam seducing busker also named Raoul. -A scarf was witness to an eerie romance between a young madman and girl he had saved from suicide. -A funeral wreath lets us know how it caused a young woman to believe her lover dead. After having told their respective story, the objects return to their customary stillness.

On her way to Paris, Gisèle meets a young motorist who offers to be her guide. Gisèle, suspicious, refuses and disappears. But Pierre finds her and takes her to dinner at Saint-Germain-des-Prés. On the other hand, Gisèle, out of jealousy, goes off on her own to visit "Paris by Night", showing us some of the attractions of the "Moulin Rouge", "Naturistes", "Rock and Roll", etc., etc., etc. Pierre pursues her and eventually discovers her hotel. The next day, he takes her for a walk around Paris. They dine at an inn where a supposed car breakdown forces them to spend the night. There was only one room, but the virtuous Gisèle locked Pierre in the bathroom. All ends in the most honest engagement in the world.

A young opera dancer tries to help her mother financially by performing in a dubious cabaret.

The Emmaüs community opened and functioned thanks to the generous impetus of Abbé Pierre Groues, bringing together a cross-section of the underprivileged: unemployed truck drivers, former paratroopers, young people leaving prison, etc., and underprivileged families. The "ragpickers" manage to make a bit of money by practicing the art of "chine", while the abbé tries his hand at winning radio games. The accident and death of one of them will unite the Emmaus companions even more.

In Bourganeuf, an old maid, Charlotte Bourdier, confesses to Marie Chassagne that she has forged a sentimental intrigue by correspondence with the presenter of the Radio Circus, Zappy Max. Marie agrees to meet him when he comes, but she in turn falls in love with him, who confesses his love to her.

Max, an illusionist as unlucky as he is skilled, would like to marry his boss's daughter, but his boss won't hear of marriage and even threatens to fire him if he doesn't come up with an interesting act. A supplier of magic items comes to Marx's rescue, handing over his "magic clock". Marx locks himself in to experiment with it and, unable to get out, falls asleep... He has a dream in which, with the power to make false things true, he becomes the hero of extraordinary adventures that take him to an Eastern country where he is made Emperor. He calls Helen to marry him, but the deposed Emperor takes revenge by having the usurper locked up in a sarcophagus.

Director Claude André Lalande illustrates the theme of three songs in images. We see and hear in turn Roland Gerbeau "Himalaya", Jacqueline François "From Montmartre to the Latin Quarter" and Jean Marco "The Ghost of Aunt Anna". This mini musical is one of the ancestors of music videos.

A man is too shy to ask a girl out and decides to kill himself. While lying in the road he is rescued by a Doctor who tries to cure him by implanting the heart of a rooster into him, something which suddenly makes him irresistible to women.