MONSIEUR RIPOIS

FRA / GB
1954
1hr 40mins
Dir: René Clément
Starring: Gérard Philipe and Valerie Hobson

The adventures of a French philanderer in London

This comedy drama features some shots of the frontage to London Charing Cross station, along with a scene filmed at the former Aldwych branch platform of Holborn Underground station with 1923 ‘Standard’ stock working a Piccadilly Line service to Uxbridge. The film was French-British co-production, released in the UK as Knave of Hearts. In France, the film was released as Monsieur Ripois (it being based on the 1950 novel Monsieur Ripois et la Némésis by Louis Hémon). In the United States it was originally released as Lovers, Happy Lovers! then confusingly re-released as Lover Boy.

‘Pris un bus pour la gare’. The scene outside Charing Cross station as Gérard Philipe tries to search for his girl.
‘Prendre le métro’. The scene filmed at Holborn with a 1923 stock train arriving. The front end destination reads Uxbridge but that can not be for this is the Aldwych branch platform which had no direct connection for trains through central London. A near identical shot had first appeared the previous year in the 1953 drama Turn the Key Softly (qv), and it may even be the same one.