
Acting
Fernand Gravey
Born 1905-12-25 · Ixelles, Brabant, Belgium
Fernand Gravey (25 December 1905 in Ixelles (Belgium) – 2 November 1970 in Paris, France), also known as Fernand Gravet in the United States, was the son of actors Georges Mertens and Fernande Depernay, who appeared in silent films produced by pioneer Belge Cinéma Film (a subsidiary of Pathé). Gravey started performing at age five under his father's direction. Before World War I, he received an education in Britain and could speak both French and English fluently, something which became useful in his movie roles. During the war, Gravey served in the British Merchant Marine Corp. In 1936, he married the French actress Jane Renouardt, who was 15 years his senior. They remained together until his death on 2 November 1970 of a heart-attack. Jane died on 3 February 1972. They had no children. Gravey performed in four films in 1913 and 1914 (as Fernand Mertens), but his first film of importance was L'Amour Chante, released in 1930. In 1933, he made Bitter Sweet, his first English language movie, which became more famous in its 1940 incarnation with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. In 1937, after several more French and British movies, Gravey went to Hollywood, where the spelling of his last name was altered to Gravet, and he became the focus of a rather extensive Hollywood publicity campaign (instructing moviegoers to pronounce his name properly: "Rhymes with Gravy"). Unfortunately for Gravey, he was offered only standard parts, the type of Gallic-lover roles that Louis Jourdan played in the 1950s and 1960s. The first two films he made in Hollywood were for Warner Brothers: The King and the Chorus Girl (1937), with Joan Blondell and Jane Wyman, and Fools for Scandal (1938), with Carole Lombard and Ralph Bellamy. Gravey then signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was cast as Johann Strauss in the expensive biopic The Great Waltz, with Luise Rainer and Miliza Korjus. MGM next planned to star Gravey in a film version of Rafael Sabatini's adventure novel Scaramouche, but instead he returned to France just before the Nazi occupation began. Although he had agreed to appear in German-approved French films, Gravey was an underminer of the invaders as a member of the French Secret Army and the Foreign Legion. At the end of the war, Gravey was considered a war hero, and continued to be featured in French productions such as La Ronde (with Danielle Darrieux), and Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954). Among his last English language performances were How to Steal a Million (1966), Guns for San Sebastian (1968) and The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), in which he played the police inspector. Source: Article "Fernand Gravey" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Acting credits
7.5A woman must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries.
How to Steal a Million
1966
5.5La Garçonne is a 1957 French film directed by Jacqueline Audry. It follows Monique, an ingenue and a clueless girl who believes in true love. When she discovers her future husband has a lover, she rebels against her bourgeois life:s he will lead a free and wild life and she will live like a man. Soon she becomes the toast of Gay Paris, sleeping with all the men around, and even with a woman.
La Garçonne
1957
6.5Annabella, Jean Gabin and Fernand Gravey star as a trio of circus trapeze artists. Both Gabin and Gravey love Annabella, but she has eyes only for Gravey. Seething with jealousy, Gabin plots revenge against his rival. He "accidentally" drops Gravey into a net during rehearsal -- but does he plan to do the same during a performance, when the trio works without a net?
Varieté
1935
6.3A cheetah runs away from a fair and steals Belgium's national symbol: Manneken Pis.
Saïda Makes Off with the Manneken Pis
1913
7.0Leon Alastray is an outlaw who has been given sanctuary by Father John, whom he then escorts to the village of San Sebastian. The village is deserted, with its cowardly residents hiding in the hills from Indians, who regularly attack the village and steal all their supplies. When Father John is murdered, the villagers mistakenly think the outlaw is the priest. Alastray at first tells them he is not a priest, but they don't believe it, and an apparent miracle seems to prove they are correct. Eventually, he assists them in regaining their confidence and defending themselves.
Guns for San Sebastian
1967
3.7A jewel thief hides his loot in a WELL while escaping. He returns several years later only to find there is a Resort on the site and the well is the centerpiece of the place. He then has to find a way to retrieve his haul.
The Hideout
1971
6.7Witty narration follows the history of Versailles Palace; founded by Louis XIII, enlarged by autocratic Louis XIV, whose personal affairs and amours, and those of his two successors, are pursued in more detail to the start of the Revolution, after which the story is brought rapidly up to date.
Royal Affairs in Versailles
1953
6.4In pre-World Ward I in Paris, a budding artist, Pierre LeBlanc, falls in love and marries Janine, a dressmaker's assistant. Pierre has a flair for designing clothes, and he and his bride live in a blissful paradise, until the war breaks out and he becomes a soldier. Janine dies in childbirth and, no longer desiring to live, Pierre volunteers for a dangerous patrol behind German lines. While recuperating in the hospital from a wound he received on the mission, Pierre spends his time drawing sketches of dresses. He becomes rich and famous after the war. Years later, after devoting himself to his daughter, Pierre seeks a marriage with a girl no older than his daughter. A conflict develops and to ensure his daughter's happiness, Pierre sacrifices his own plans.
Four Flights to Love
1939
6.4An American is on the run in the streets and back alleys of France.
Gunman in the Streets
1950
7.0Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976
7.3An eccentric Parisian woman's optimistic perception of life begins to sound more rational than the traditional beliefs of others. The story is set in a 20th-century society endangered by power and greed and imagines the rebellion of the "little people" against corrupt and soulless authority.
The Madwoman of Chaillot
1969
6.2A brilliant swindler, Olivier Parker, hires a small-time pipe salesman, Amédée, to swindle a naive provincial, Ferdinand Galiveau, a chicken merchant. Renamed Teddy Morton and now a jockey, Amédée must ride a mare on which Ferdinand, advised by Parker, must bet. Absolutely convinced of his mystification, Parker bets on an oddball who, of course, loses, while at the last minute Galiveau, having bet on an outsider, wins a fortune. All Parker has to do is find another sucker.
Slightly Ahead
1956
7.3An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.
La Ronde
1950
9.0Gisèle accidentally marries her stalker when she thinks she is signing a hotel register in a foreign country.
Let's Get Married
1931
5.8Marie, a young provincial girl, is seduced by an American billionaire. She agrees to stay with him if he moves her village to New York.
Give Her the Moon
1970
6.7Out of love for an actress, Isabelle, the Baron de Sigognac joins a traveling troop en route to Paris. When an actor dies, he takes over his role: that of Captain Fracasse.
Captain Fracasse
1943
7.0This short shows how Hollywood gets ready for the world premiere of an "important" movie. The film celebrated here is Marie Antoinette (1938), which had its premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre. We see the street leading to the theatre transformed to suggest a garden that might be seen in a French palace. This includes the placement of trees and other foliage, as well as large statues along the route. Grandstands are set up so fans can see their favorite stars as they arrive for the premiere. Finally, the proverbial "galaxy of stars" arrives in their limousines. Fanny Brice and Pete Smith make remarks at the microphone set up on the carpet outside the theatre.
Hollywood Goes to Town
1938
6.8At the urging of her childhood friend Brémontier, Lucie de Kéradec, a wealthy widowed countess who wishes to remarry, invites all of her seven suitors to her mansion. Her untold intention is to test them by claiming to be ruined. The experience is a success in that each of the potential husbands reveals his inner nature but a failure when it comes to finding a new life partner. None of the guests passes the test except - the eighth man, namely Brémontier who loved Lucie in secret but, being penniless, had not dared declare his flame to her.
Seven Men, One Woman
1936
7.3Two unemployed musicians dress up as women to be hired by an all-female orchestra called "Tulips from Holland"; they fall in love with two gorgeous musicians.
Fanfare of Love
1935
6.1Denis, a poor student in philosophy, works as a night porter in the Paris market of Les Halles in order to pay for his studies. Constantly weary, he falls asleep and dreams of a beautiful girl in white, Irène, with whom he falls in love.
Fantastic Night
1942
8.0Manhunt in Paris and as far as Belgium to catch an American gangster escaped from a police van.
Le Traqué
1950
6.3Duclos's son, a worldly gangster, is compromised in a case of which he is innocent. The proof of this innocence is in the hands of a "competitor", the Marquis de Chemantel de Beauvoiron, a misguided aristocrat. He asked for $ 10 million to cede the document. Duclos will then imagine Chemantel contracting $ 10 million in life insurance for his son. As he discovered in Rome a tramp, a look-alike of the marquis, he will bring this man to Paris and arrange for him to die accidentally.
Toto in Paris
1958
6.5Kaatje, the daughter of the miller Schoonejans, and Jef, a little shepherd, who live near Delft, are happy together. In a floral parade, the carriage the two children have decorated with tulips wins the first prize. The next day, during a thunderstorm, lightning destroys the mill and kills Schoonejans. A life of misery starts for his widow and daughter. Remembering how the theatre manager Boolmans had applauded the dancing of Kaatje and Jef at the floral parade, the widow takes her daughter to Amsterdam, where Boolmans engages Kaatje. The years pass, and Kate has become a famous dancer.
La Fille de Delft
1914
10.0A jealous American, Mr Stevenson, travels to France with his very pretty young wife Kitty. He tries all sorts of subterfuges so that the charming young woman does not attract the attention of men. But she did not escape the gaze of a certain Robert Perceval.
Passionately
1932