European Film Star Postcards: Janine Darcey

05 November 2024

Janine Darcey

French actress Janine Darcey (1917-1993) was known for such films as Entrée des artistes (1938), French Without Tears (1940) and the classic Film Noir Du rififi chez les hommes (1955). She was married to Serge Reggiani. Darcey appeared in 60 films between 1936 and 1993.

French postcard by Editions EPC, no. 215. Photo: Roger Kahan.

French postcard by Editions Chantal, Rueil, no. 529. Photo: Max Glass.

The most promising newcomer of the year

Janine Darcey was born Janine Renée Casaubon in 1917 in Asnières, now Asnières-sur-Seine, France. She was the daughter of Eugène Casaubon, an industrialist, and Marie Bouchon. She went to school in the Paris region, before leaving for England to continue her studies.

On her return, she took drama classes and had minor roles as an extra in several films. One of her first films was the French comedy Le mioche/Forty Little Mothers (Léonide Moguy, 1936) starring Lucien Baroux, Gabrielle Dorziat and Pauline Carton. On 1 July 1937, Janine married Pierre Torre from a wealthy industrialist family. They divorced in 1941.

Marc Allégret noticed her and offered her a leading role as a young actress, a student at the Conservatoire in the successful and acclaimed crime film Entrée des artistes/The Curtain Rises (Marc Allégret, 1938) with Louis Jouvet. For this role, she was awarded the Suzanne Bianchetti Prize for the Most Promising Newcomer of the Year.

That year, she also appeared in the French drama Le petit chose/The Little Thing (Maurice Cloche, 1938) starring Robert Lynen, Arletty and Marcelle Barry. The film was based on Alphonse Daudet's 1868 novel 'Le Petit Chose'. She then played the great role of Sylvia Clayton, whose love life interferes with diplomatic negotiations, in Marcel L'Herbier's historical film Entente cordiale/Cordial Agreement (Marcel L’Herbier, 1939).

She then completed the stellar cast in the romantic comedy Cavalcade d'amour/Cavalcade of Love (Raymond Bernard, 1939). Darcey also appeared in the British comedy French Without Tears (Anthony Asquith, 1940) opposite Ray Milland and Ellen Drew. During this time, she also acted in the theatre, appearing, for example, at the Théâtre de la Michodiere.

French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 113. Photo: * Star.

French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 129. Photo: * Star.

The best crime film I've ever seen

In 1943, Janine Darcey played the only female character, the social worker Andrée in Le Carrefour des enfants perdus/Children of Chaos (Léo Joannon, 1943). She fell in love with the lead actor, Serge Reggiani. They married in 1945 and had two children. Her son Stéphan (born 1945) later embarked on a career as a singer, songwriter and composer until his suicide in 1980. Her daughter Carine (1951-2017) was also a singer and a Michel Fugain's Big Bazar troupe member.

Caring for her family put her out of action for a few years. She began to reappear in front of the camera only in the late 1940s, not surprisingly reuniting with her husband in films, for example in the detective film Le mystère de la chambre jaune/The Mystery of the Yellow Room (Henri Aisner, 1949). Both starred, though each in a different episode, in the short story project Retour à la vie/Return to Life (André Cayatte, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean Dréville, Georges Lampin, 1949).

Darcey acted in the classic crime film Du rififi chez les hommes/Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955) with Jean Servais and Carl Möhner. Film critic and future director François Truffaut praised the film, stating that "Out of the worst crime novel I ever read, Jules Dassin has made the best crime film I've ever seen" In 1955, Darcey divorced Serge Reggiani and in 1957, she remarried Michel Jacovleff, a writer but above all an adventurer and a fraud, and thanks to him the actress's film career was on the wane again.

She appeared as a hotel owner in the successful crime drama Un témoin dans la ville/Witness in the City (Édouard Molinaro, 1959) starring Lino Ventura and after a long hiatus, she appeared as the mayor’s wife in Cayatte's drama Les risques du métier/Risky Business (André Cayatte, 1967) with Jacques Brel. In the 1970s, she moved to a small mountain village, Gréolières in the Alpes-Maritimes. She appeared in a minor role as a patient in Le fantôme de la liberté/The Phantom of Liberty (Luis Bunuel, 1974), and as Miss Lambert, the secretary in the comedy Coup de tête/Hothead (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1978) starring Patrick Dewaere.

Devastated by the suicide of her son Stéphan, she only returned to film a few times in the 1980s. With age and distance from the professional world, roles became increasingly rare. One of her last films was the comedy The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish (Ben Lewin, 1991) starring Bob Hoskins. Janine Darcey died in 1993 in Fontenay-lès-Briis, France. She was 76. Her final film, the drama Délit mineur (Francis Girod, 1994) with Caroline Cellier and Claude Brasseur premiered after her death.