Claude Castaing

Papa, Mama, the Maid and I

Robert Langlois is now married to Catherine, the former housemaid. And they would live happily ever after if the housing crisis did not force them to live together with Gabrielle and Fernand, Robert's parents. For, despite the good will on either side, tension soon arises. What else to expect when there is too little space in their Montmartre apartment for four people (then for six then eight, the couple having... two pairs of twins!) ; the continued presence there of Fernand (who loves peace and quiet) after he is driven to retirement ; the difficult beginnings of Robert as a lawyer in a room of the apartment, etc... Other troubles follow and the harried family is on the verge of implosion...

Documents relevant to National Defence have been concealed in a certain vase by a dangerous gang of robbers. To neutralize the criminals, a seasoned police commissioner and his clumsy assistant, young inspector César, join forces with a colorful trio of thieves nicknamed Le Pouce (Thumb), L'Index (Index Finger) and Le Majeur (Middle Finger)...

One day, Raoul Cérusier realizes with amazement that his face has changed. With the exception of an old uncle, no one, not even his wife, recognizes him. From an ordinary, rather ugly man, he has become a charming young man on whom the prettiest girls turn, including his wife whom he seduces. Fortunately, he regains his old face in time and Madame Cérusier, losing a lover, finds her husband again.

A poacher nicknamed "Le Bouif" is accused of having murdered his son-in-law, trainer of a horse stable in Maisons-Laffitte.

The short stories of Guy de Maupassant enjoyed a renaissance in the early 1950s, thanks in great part to the Max Ophuls production Le Plaisir. In Trois Femmes, three De Maupassant stories are dramatized, each conveying the central theme of women falling in love. In the first, a black female carnival entertainer causes an uproar when she falls in love with a white soldier. In the second, a young bride is pressured into having a baby to collect a huge inheritance. And in the final episode, a pregnant girl is "adopted" and protected by a small circle of friends. In standard De Maupassant fashion, each of the three stories in Trois Femmes is capped by a surprise twist.

Martial, Colette 's husband, is madly jealous. One day, he catches his wife writing a letter and he does want to know what this message contains, to no avail.

An aimless young man is committed to a psychiatric hospital by his father in an attempt to cure him of his delinquent tendencies.

The director of a dairy cooperative in La Manche dies in a vat of milk. In line to succeed him are his four deputy managers, all with very different temperaments: the aristocratic Dufaux, the seductive Courtin, the pious Lainé and the wait-and-see Tousseur. Each of them pulls out all the stops to win a major order from Morloch. Once this is achieved, election to the post of director by the cooperators is all but assured.

At the end of the 19th century, during a ball in Joinville, on the outskirts of Paris, Georges, a former delinquent working as a carpenter, meets Marie, a young woman connected to a criminal gang.

The directors of a company threatened by a railroad construction project in Africa decide to have the General Secretary of the Franco-African consortium killed. Géo Paquet, known as "Le Gorille", a DST spy, attempts to infiltrate the gang.

Convicted of murdering his wife, a crime of which he declares himself innocent, Jacques Mazur is serving a long sentence in a prison where his presence causes disruption.