Maurin des Maures (1932) Review: A Loud, Dusty, French Delight

If you have a soft spot for dusty, loud 1930s French comedies where everyone talks at once, Maurin des Maures is absolutely worth ninety minutes of your Sunday. It’s perfect for people who love rustic charm and old-school scoundrels, but if you can't stand crackly mono audio or theater actors shouting at the camera, you’ll probably turn it off in ten minutes. 🪵

Antonin Berval plays Maurin, a legendary poacher who basically runs the local woods like a king. He spends half the movie dodging gendarmes and the other half looking intensely pleased with himself.

His whole carefree lifestyle gets a bit complicated when he falls for a sweet young girl. The big problem? She's already engaged to one of the local cops he loves to embarrass.

The movie has that weird, bumpy rhythm of early sound cinema where scenes just... sit there. At one point, a dog just stares at the camera for a solid fifteen seconds while two guys argue in the background, and I honestly don't think the director noticed. 🐶

It has that same chaotic, slightly unpolished energy you find in early Hollywood talkies like The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case, though this one has way more dirt and sweat.

Things I scribbled down while watching:

• The whistling. There is so much whistling in this movie.
• One of the police officers has a mustache that looks like it is trying to escape his face.
• A very dramatic hat drop that felt like it took three tries to get right.

The romance is definitely the weakest part of the whole thing. Maurin goes from this fun, wild woodsman to staring at this poor girl like a lovesick puppy.

The girl, played by Jeanne Boitel, has these incredibly dramatic eyes that feel left over from the silent era. You can almost feel the movie trying to convince you they are soulmates, but they have about as much chemistry as a pair of wet boots.

But then there is this great scene in a tavern where everyone is drinking and singing. The audio is so distorted it sounds like they are underwater, but the energy is so real you can almost smell the cheap wine. 🍷

It is definitely not a masterpiece, and the ending feels like everyone just got tired and decided to go home. Still, there is something incredibly cozy about these old French regional films. They don't make movies this... soggy anymore, and I mean that in the best way possible.