The story of a gentle-hearted beast in love with a simple and beautiful girl. She is drawn to the repellent but strangely fascinating Beast, who tests her fidelity by giving her a key, telling her that if she doesn't return it to him by a specific time, he will die of grief. She is unable to return the key on time, but it is revealed that the Beast is the genuinely handsome one. A simple tale of tragic love that turns into a surreal vision of death, desire, and beauty.

Franz Schubert retired from Vienna in country for musical writing. He draws his inspiration from a romance with the watermiller's daughter. An operetta in the fifties Vienna style. This is the only movie from Marcel Pagnol in color and the only movie in rouxcolor, a French experimental process derivated from the agfacolor German process.

Monsieur Loyal, bailiff by profession, is dispatched to a grub by an actress. Reason: she accuses Micheline, a young singer who works there, of stealing her songs. But our usher is nonetheless a man, and Micheline exerts her charms on him so well that he gives him shelter for the night, and finds him a new job at the Mirador, a cabaret that has just opened.

This is the story of a wealthy bourgeois who marries his only child, a daughter, to a penniless nobleman because he hopes to use his son-in-law to get a title. The son-in-law is a lazy, affected stereotype; but M. Poirier is also a stereotype, of the obnoxious big businessman. The poor daughter, who falls in love with her husband, lets him walk all over her.

The error of an examining magistrate forever tears apart a happy and united family.

Elenita from Sierra Mirador is the darling of Biarritz. For her, a young groom abandons his wife, a forty-year-old suddenly becomes inflamed and cheats on his young wife. But Elenita, watched by her mother, resigns herself to becoming honest and returns to her husband.

In South America anything can happen: the consul might give you as a snack to the sharks, you can wind up as a working man (slave) in a banana plantation or as a recruit in the governor's navy. And there's always a fire squad waiting for you so you 'd better start a revolution! It takes all Fernandel's talent to go through this eventful journey.

Abandoned children, left to their own devices and a life of danger, are adopted by a kind man.

Antoine Mouret, an authoritarian restaurateur, is the head of a large family where, for reasons of interest, people only marry cousins. But some have other plans, Marcus especially when he meets a passing circus girl.

At 73, a former President of the French Council reflects on his political career while writing his memoirs, delving into his relationships with key figures, including the one set to become the next President.