Caravane
Cast & Crew
Annabella
Charles Boyer
Pierre Brasseur
Conchita Montenegro
Marcel Vallee
Carrie Daumery
Film Details
Synopsis
[The following plot summary is based on the English-language version of this film, Caravan ; character names refer to that version.] When the wine harvest season arrives in the Tokay region of Hungary, the administrator of the Chateau Tokay contracts with the gypsy chief to employ gypsies for three days. Because the quality of the wine depends on the music played during the harvest, the most important part of the contract instructs Lazi, the blasé gypsy violinist, to compose a new song. Lazi finds the inspiration for his song during an embrace with Tinka, a gypsy girl who loves him but towards whom he has grown somewhat ambivalent. That day marks the return to the chateau of Countess Wilma after fourteen years abroad. Wilma, who expects to become the mistress of the estate when she turns twenty-one the next day, is incensed to learn from the executor of her father's will, her uncle, Baron von Tokay, that she must be married by her twenty-first birthday in order to inherit the estate. The baron desires her to marry his son, Lieutenant von Tokay, who has reluctantly left his friends and consorts in Budapest and is expected to arrive that day. Wilma, however, refuses to comply with the baron's wishes and, hearing Lazi's song, proposes to him. Struck by her beauty, Lazi consents. When the aristocratic guests, disgraced by Lazi's presence, leave the chateau, Wilma opens the house to the gypsies. Although she resists Lazi's attempts to kiss her, she goes with Lazi to an inn, where, dressed as a gypsy, she declares that the "countess" is dead. Lieutenant von Tokay arrives at the inn and, thinking that Wilma is a gypsy, flirts with her. Seeing their mutual interest, Lazi takes Wilma back to the estate, where the gypsies are still celebrating. The lieutenant follows and, after dancing with Wilma, confesses his love; however, when he explains that he is supposed to marry the countess and suggests that Wilma have a clandestine affair with him, she slaps him. At the baron's request, troops arrive to disperse the gypsies, and the lieutenant rides off with Wilma. She allows him to kiss her, but then steals his horse and leaves him stranded. The lieutenant wanders into the gypsy camp, where he finds Tinka crying over her loss of Lazi. He suggests that they try to forget their suffering together, but their attempt at love fails, and the lieutenant discovers that he only wants Wilma. At the estate, when he learns Wilma's true identity, the lieutenant rails at her for marrying a gypsy in order to keep control of her land. Lazi rescues Wilma from a knife attack by the jealous Tinka and then spends the wedding night alone because of a family tradition. Lazi overhears Wilma tell a priest of her unhappiness, and when the priest suggests that Lazi, being a gypsy, would accept one hundred pengö for an annulment, Lazi indignantly tells Wilma that there is not enough money to pay for his love and gives her her freedom for nothing. However, he orders the gypsies to stop playing his music and urges them to steal from the chateau before they leave. Wilma prepares to depart until an innkeeper tells her that the townspeople, fearing a failure of the wine harvest, feel that only she can keep the gypsies from leaving. She then rides out to Lazi and convinces him to play his song so that the harvest can continue. After she and Lazi amicably say goodbye, she discovers that the lieutenant, who learned from Lazi of his break up with Wilma, has taken the reins of her carriage. He and Wilma sing Lazi's song as they happily ride back to the estate. The gypsies also sing as they work, while Lazi gives Trina a necklace that he stole from Wilma, and they embrace in their wagon as they ride off.
Cast
Annabella
Charles Boyer
Pierre Brasseur
Conchita Montenegro
Marcel Vallee
Carrie Daumery
George Davis
Jules Raucourt
Luis Alberni
André Cheron
Robert Graves
André Ferrier
André Berley
Armand Kaliz
Lou Tellegen
Crew
Erik Charell
Erik Charell
William Darling
André Daven
Louis Defrancesco
Werner Richard Heymann
Werner Richard Heymann
Werner Richard Heymann
Robert T. Kane
Sammy Lee
Melchior Lengyel
Robert Liebmann
Ernest Palmer
Samson Raphaelson
Theodor Sparkuhl
Ernst Stern
Ernst Stern
A. L. Von Kirbach
Bernard Zimmer
Bernard Zimmer
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The onscreen credits for this French-language version of the 1934 film Caravan were taken from a screen credit sheet in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department in the UCLA Arts-Special Collections Library. Jeannette Marchal translated the English screenplay into French. Gus Kahn did not receive screen credit for writing the lyrics to the songs in the French version; however, according to correspondence in the legal records, Bernard Zimmer, who did receive screen credit, only translated Kahn's English lyrics. According to the legal records, Annabella, Pierre Brasseur and André Berley came from Fox Europa in Paris to be in the French version. A Daily Variety news item noted that Annabella was Europe's top star and that André Daven, who supervised the French-language version, was a Fox producer in France.
