Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)

Highly Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: Boudu sauvé des eaux

Director: Jean Renoir

Writer: Jean Renoir, Albert Valentin, René Fauchois

Cinematographers: Georges Asselin, Marcel Lucien

Cast: Michel Simon, Charles Granval, Marcelle Hainia, Sévérine Lerczinska, Jean Gehret, Max Dalban, Jean Dasté

After losing his dog, Boudu, an innocent vagrant, jumps suicidally into the Seine, but is saved by a well-meaning bookseller, who, feeling responsible for his life, takes him into his home and becomes his benefactor… chaos subsequently ensues, in Renoir’s hilarious adaptation of Fauchois’s play, filled with excellent comic performances and delicious social commentary. Iain.Stott

René Fauchois's 1919 play was subsequently adapted as Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986).