Plucking the Daisy (1956)

Plucking the Daisy (En effeuillant la marguerite)
Directed by Marc Allegret
Written by Roger Vadim and Marc Allegret from a story by William Benjamin
1956/France
Films EGE/Hoch Productions
First viewing/Hulu

 [observation, 1987] I gave my youth and beauty to men. Now I’m giving my wisdom and my experience, the better part of me, to animals. — Brigitte Bardot

This Bardot vehicle is a fairly tame and silly farce.

Agnes Dumont (Bardot) is the eighteen-year-old daughter of a general.  She has written an anonymous and scandalous best-seller about her local Vichy society called Plucking the Daisy.  She is about to reveal her identity in a press conference in Paris.  She also plans to meet her brother whom she believes is a successful painter.  On the train there, she finds herself without a ticket and seeks the help of a reporter and photographer both of whom lust after her.  Eventually, she will fall for the reporter.

It turns out her brother is merely a security guard at the Balzac museum.  Not knowing this she goes to the museum, which the brother has used as is address, and makes herself at home.  Still out of cash, she grabs one of the rare books and sells it, using the money to buy a wardrobe and repay her friends for the ticket.  When she finds out the truth, she needs cash fast to buy the book back and resorts to competing in an amateur striptease contest.  She performs in a mask and the film moves into a comedy of mistaken identities.

Not in the film

The material does not glow like Mlle Bardot and the film seemed to go on and on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ92NptyFk8

Clip – PG rated