IMMORTAL MARTINE …


" Evoke Martine Carol's career amounts in redraw the ascent of a comedienne in the edge of second world war " André-Charles Cohen in sound magnificent work dedicated to the actress writes.

Martine Carol, of the true name Marie-Louise Mourer, is born to Saint-Mandé ( Val-de-Marne) on May 16, 1920 . ( birth official act) After a childhood without history, she meets the comedian André Luguet who advises her to make of the theater. She joins so in René Simon Courts and appears at Gaston Baty, director of the Theater Montparnasse who engages her in " Phèdre " . She takes then " Maryse Arley's " pen name . She will also play in " The tamed shrew " and " Marianne's quirks ", details forgotten well today … Martine or rather Maryse will be noticed by Henri-Georges Clouzot who engages her for his next film " The Cat " according to Colette's novel. But project fails and shooting does not finally take place. Not long after it is Richard Pottier who retains her for " The Farm in wolves ". She plays it Micky's role, young one journalist, beside François Périer and beside Paul Meurisse . On François Périer's initiative, Maryse is another actor's name : it will be "Martine Carol" . " The Farm in wolves " turned in 1943 stands out the beginning of a long career for Martine. The producers and the film directors notice its beauty and its ease in front of the camera. Martine changes also look : she is retouched the nose then changes the colour of the hair : she will be fair henceforth. She looks particularly after the make-up. In the end of the war, after " Bifur III " , Martine Carol signs her third contract ; in " The extravagant mission " ( 1945 ) of Henri Calef. Her partners are Henri Grisol, Simone Valère, Jean Tissier and Denise Grey. She begins to perceive not unimportant stamps and settles down in the 56, street of Pile in the eighth district of Paris. In the end of the forties, we find Martine in the Theater of the Renaissance in " The Road in the tobacco " in Charles Moulin's side. A real test for her : Martine is struck every evening by her partner for the necessities of the detail… She returns at her exhausted. At the same time the heart turns over for beautiful Georges Marchal, but this last one is already betrothed to Dany Robin. After a rather short history, the actor announces that everything is finished with her. Shock is too strong for Martine : an evening after the theater, in an extreme confusion and having absorbed a medicine containing amphétamines and alcohol, she is driven to the Bridge of Alma and throws himself into the Seine. The place is not chosen at random : Georges Marchal living then close, street Foucault. Fortunately Martine is saved by the taxi driver who accompanied her to there : this last one drives her to the urgencies of the most close hospital. The press of time will accuse her for having gone up any rooms this missed suicide. Always it is that the young actress after this event is more famous than ever. She knows a renewal of popularity : every evening the Theater of the Renaissance does not empty. Everybody hurries up to see this so beautiful girl who wanted to die. In the same period Martine turns "Mirror" with a giant of the French cinema: Jean Gabin. It is their first meeting. They will meet themselves some years later on the plateau of " Cellar rebiffe ". In 1948, Martine marries American Steve Crane, but tires of having to make ceaselessly allers and returns between the United States and France she divorces in 1953. Her career continues. It is necessary moreover to note about this last one that in 1950 she turns one of the "films - idols": " beloved Caroline " according to Cécil Saint-Laurent's novel (alias Jacques Laurent). If the book of the young novelist was a best-seller the film which followed was an immense success. For Georges Debot, who knew well the actress, " Martine's career can divide into two periods: before " beloved Caroline " and after " beloved Caroline ". Before, she has many difficulties being accepted otherwise that under a shape of delicious image for calendar. She illustrates eloquently the definition of pine - up, this girl whom one pins to the wall in effigy and whom one contemplates the gloomy days to be dreamed. Later, she(it) can claim to " interpret " roles, one accepts her more easily. However, Martine Carol, it is the other thing than the beautiful figure over a beautiful body ". But let us return this year of 1953, that of the divorce from Steve Crane. In spite of this failure conjugual she drowns sorrows of work. This same year it turns " Boarder " (beside Ralf Vallone), then " Lysistrata " an episode of Christian-Jaque's " fates " . Then it is " Secrets of alcôve " " of Jean Delannoy, beside Bernard Blier. In 1954, she plays in the sensational " Madam du Barry " always Christian-Jaque and " Nana " of the same director according to Emile Zola's work. Christian-Jaque, omnipresent, becomes her husband on July 15, 1954. Martine turns in 1955 Max Ophüls's " Lola Montès " , in our opinion one of the most beautiful films of the actress. Georges Debot will write about Christian-Jaque that " managed only to her to give him this balance, this stability, who were lacking to her up to there and which it reperdra afterward as soon as they will be separate ". She will turn under the management"Nathalie ( 1957 )" . Martine leaves for Tahiti to turn " The Stowaway " of Ralph Habib according to Georges Simenon's novel. Then in 1958, we find her in Berlin for the shooting of " Right by Satan " of Robert Aldrich. The marriage with Christian-Jaque is not any more set fair. Taken both by their professional activities, they have only too much few occasions to meet itself. In 1959, during a journey in Martinique, she meets André Rouveix, an attractive doctor of Fort-de-France. He get married to Haiti on August 3, 1959. Then Martine resumes her career : it is the shooting of Abel Gance's " Austerlitz " ; she embodies there Josephine empress more really than nature beside Pierre Mondy (in Napoleon). In 1960, it is " One evening on the beach ", where we find her deeply moving, full of maturity beside Jean Desailly. In 1961, it is " Vanina Vanini " according to Stendhal, realized by Roberto Rosselini, then " Cellar rebiffe ", of more accessible Gilles Grangier, with Jean Gabin and Maurice Biraud. In 1961 Martine Carol turns Georges Lautner's film : " In full shoe polish ". 1962 sees the end of its marriage with the Doctor Rouveix : they divorce on June 23. Martine takes refuge then with " The Firm Midsummer Day " her Magagnoscq's property, near Fat. Confined, depressed, she does not answer any more the propositions of the producers. A gentleman comes nevertheless to knock at the door of this exile: it is Mike Eland, an English businessman, friend of her first husband Steve Crane. He will make her a discreet but diligent yard. " She loves that one loves him(it) " as the paper so beautifully Georges Debot. Eland will be the one that will make her(it) live again. They get married and lead a very comfortable life to London. Until this day of February, 1967 … Martine and her new husband are invited in Monaco to a big official reception. She occupies the suite 8555 of the Hotel of Paris. During the first part of evening, they dine with friends, everything happens for best ; after the meal, Martine has to attend the representation of a film, but she feels tired and prefers to bring in alone in the hotel. She engages Mike to pursue evening with their friends. Of return in the chamber, Martine looks for sleep. In vain. Her husband phones to her, reassures her: she can sleep without the help of the usual medicines. Nevertheless he gives orders to the caretaker of the hotel : if ever need is this last one will send a doctor to Martine. Mike informs this last one of these capacities. A short time later, the caretaker calls a doctor who makes a sting for Martine at 23 o'clock. Mike is back at about 2 o'clock 30 of the morning. He discovers inanimate Martine in the room of bath : she succumbed to a cardiac stop. We are on February 6, 1967, " beloved Martine " is not any more.After a ceremony in Paris, in the cemetery of Père-Lachaise, Martine's body starts again for the South. She rests henceforth in the cemetery of Cannes.

 

About Marilyn Monroe's death, on August 4, 1962, disappearance which had upset her(it), Martine declared :
" I believe that I am a little crossed there at the certain moment. It is pity. She was alone. One would have been able to take out her from there, certainly. Regrettably, she was alone. I had a moment like that. One just took out me of it so much the better. Oh, it was less one, yes ! ".

Christophe BOURACHOT
martinecarol@free.fr

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