Money talks: the logorrheic masquerade in two films from 1934

Abstract

In the early 1930s there were a number of financial scandals, involving fraud and corruption at the highest levels, as talented individuals played unregulated markets at the expense of small savers. The best known of these involved the banker Marthe Hanau – whose story was later told in La Banquière (Francis Girod, 1980) – and Alexandre Stavisky (the subject of Alain Resnais’s 1974 film). The scandals led to several plays, two of which were made into films in 1934: Ces messieurs de la Santé (Pierre Colombier, starring Raimu) and La Banque Nemo (Marguerite Viel, starring Victor Boucher). The two films have several common features: a charismatic and garrulous male lead as the unscrupulous banker, who tricks those around him into investing their savings unwisely. This is done with help of a female assistant. She seduces the men sexually, while the banker seduces them with words. The culmination of each film is investment in (imaginary) minerals in foreign lands. This article will show how the films’ currency is the seduction of erotic and exotic dreams beneath which there is literally nothing: what circulates, masquerading as something, is the power of words in a spectacular star performance.