La Grande Illusion (1937): During WWI three French officers are captured. Captain De Boeldieu is an aristocrat while Lieutenant Marechal was a mechanic in civilian life. They meet other prisoners from various backgrounds as Rosenthal son of wealthy Jewish bankers. They are separated from Rosenthal before managing to escape. A few months later they meet again in a fortress commanded by the aristocrat Van Rauffenstein. De Boeldieu strikes up a friendship with him but Marechal and Rosenthal still want to escape... One of the very first prison escape movies La Grande Illusion is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made. Le Crime De Monsieur Lange (1936): A man and a woman arrive in a cafe-hotel near the belgian frontier. The customers recognize the man from the police's description. His name is Amedee Lange he murdered Batala in Paris. His lady friend Valentine tells the whole story : Lange was an employee in Batala's little printing works. Batala was a real bastard swindling every one seducing female workers of Valentine's laundry... One day he fled to avoid facing his creditors and the workers set up a cooperative to go on working. But the plot is less important that the description of the atmosphere just before the Popular Front. La Bete Humaine (1940): Severine and her husband Roubaud kill their former employer in a train. Engineer Jacques watches them but doesn't tell the police because he's in love with Severine. But in an epileptic attack he kills her... Boudu Saved From Drowing (1932): Michel Simon stars as Boudu a vagabond who attempts suicide by throwing himself into the Seine grieving over the loss of his dog. But Eduaord Lestingois (Charles Granval) a humane bookseller rescues him and takes him into his home hoping to reform the shaggy bum. Shortly thereafter anarchy reigns as the household is turned upside down by the antics of this large three-year-old. Spitting in first editions using silken sheets to polish his shoes sleeping in the hallway and similar breaches of etiquette do little to endear Boudu to Lestingois. However once Boudu has had a bath and shave in order to please the maid Mrs. Lestingois (Marcelle Hainia) becomes surprisingly responsive to his overtures. The maid (Severine Lerczinska) who is Lestingois's mistress also seems to feel the tramp's mysterious charm. Granval an exemplary bourgeois now has more than one reason to envy the man he saved from drowning.