The Red Inn (French: L'auberge rouge) is a 1951 French comedy crime film directed by Claude Autant-Lara and starring Fernandel, Françoise Rosay and Julien Carette. It premiered on 19 October 1951. A remake of the film, directed by Gérard Krawczyk, premiered in 2007.
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Plot
Set in 1833, it tells the story of how a monk visits the inn l'Auberge rouge in Peyrebeille, where the innkeeper confesses to a number of serious sins. The film is based on the actual crime case of the Peyrebeille Inn.
Production
The film was originally supposed to be an adaptation of Honoré de Balzac's 1831 short story The Red Inn ("L'auberge rouge"), as part of the commemoration to mark a hundred years since Balzac's death. When the financing encountered problems and took longer than expected, the filmmakers decided to keep the title, but change the project into a treatment of the events of the Auberge rouge in Peyrebeille, which are unrelated to Balzac's story.
The story had been filmed twice before, as a 1910 French silent film adapted by Abel Gance, and later as a 1923 film directed by Jean Epstein, with both of those earlier versions sticking much closer to the original story.
It was shot at the Billancourt Studios in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director Max Douy.
Cast
Fernandel as the monk
Françoise Rosay as Marie Martin
Marie-Claire Olivia as Mathilde
Jean-Roger Caussimon as Dauvin
Nane Germon as Elisa
Jacques Charon as Rodolphe
Julien Carette as Pierre Martin
Grégoire Aslan as Barbeuf
Andrée Viala as La Marquise De La Roche de Glun
Didier D'yd as Janou
Lud Germain as Fétiche
Robert Berri as Le Cocher
André Cheff as Le dandy
André Dalibert as le bûcheron
Manuel Gary as Un gendarme
René Lefevre-Bel as Un gendarme