By the time she appeared inCette Sacree Gamine, Bardot, just twenty-two years old, had already appeared in more than a dozen films, mostly in small roles, and had married aspiring filmmaker Roger Vadim. Both their careers were stalled until b-movie producer Georges Senamaud asked Vadim to rewrite a script for one of his films. As Vadim recounted the story in his memoirs, he agreed, on the conditions that Bardot would play the leading role, and that Michel Boisrond, a promising assistant to famed director Rene Clair, would direct. Then Vadim tailored the script to highlight his beloved's charm, her comedy skills, and most of all, her spectacular body.
Bardot plays the daughter of a Montmartre nightclub owner falsely suspected of forgery who goes into hiding from crooks and cops. Papa entrusts his daughter, a ballet student, to the club's headline entertainer, played by Jean Bretonniere, and she wreaks havoc on the suave singer's life. The two go on the lam so suddenly that she spends the early scenes of the film running around in the abbreviated leotard she was wearing when he snatched her from dance class, conveniently showing off her lithe dancer's body and legs (Bardot actually did study ballet). Look for Russian character actor Mischa Auer, so wonderful in Hollywood comedies of the 1930s and '40s, in a very funny bit as a pianist for the class. Bardot also flaunts her form in other skimpy costumes, including a bath towel, a look that became a signature for her in subsequent films. It's all reminiscent of Hollywood films of the era, from its splashy musical numbers and slapstick chases to the naive girl-worldly older man romances such as Susan Slept Here. It ends with a slapstick blowout that's more akin to a Three Stooges farce than a romance. As Vadim described the film, "One might say it was the French equivalent of a Doris Day film, but with a bolder, more liberated edge."
Released in France in 1956 and in Britain as Mam'zelle Pigalle the following year, the film made Bardot a star in Europe. British critics were lukewarm towards the film, but declared Bardot a new star. The Times of London called it "one of those light, frothy bits of French more or less nothingness with which it is so difficult to come to grips," but added, "Mlle. Bardot lends a vivid, mischievous personality to the role." By the time That Naughty Girl opened in the U.S., Bardot was already an international sex goddess, thanks to And God Created Woman, and American critics, such as Paul Beckley of the New York Herald Tribune were kinder, calling it "A delightful and boisterous romp....Has definite overtones of Mack Sennett but of course with a French accent....Miss Bardot is, of course, in a towel...Acting ability in a case like this is beside the point, but it must be admitted that what [she] is asked to do she does quite well indeed." The Bardot phenomenon was underway, and the worldwide fascination with her continued long after she retired from films shortly before her fortieth birthday.
Director: Michel Boisrond
Producers: Georges Senamaud, Albert Mazaleyrat
Screenplay: Roger Vadim and Michel Boisrond, from an idea by Jean Perine
Cinematography: Joseph Brun
Editor: Jacques Mavel
Costume Design: Antoine Mayo, Maggie Rouff
Art Direction: Jacques Chalvet
Music: Henri Colla, Hubert Rostaing
Principal Cast: Brigitte Bardot (Brigitte Latour), Jean Bretonniere (Jean Clery), Francoise Fabian (Lily Rocher-Villedieu), Raymond Bussieres (Jerome), Bernard Lancret (Paul Latour), Jean Poiret (1st Inspector), Michel Serrault (2nd Inspector), Mischa Auer (pianist)
86 minutes
by Margarita Landazuri
