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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.
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