Tad Pole . . . it's a wonder that the "Axis" (that is, Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and Tojo's Japan) managed to lose World War Two. Some over-rated English-speaking schmuck named "Hitchcock" was tapped to answer "Leni Riefenstahl's" masterwork TRIUMPH OF THE WILL with a propaganda piece of his own. The garbled result from "Hitch"--ADVENTURE MALGACHE--is so incoherent that it seems an early wasted effort on the part of those proverbial million typing monkeys alleged to have the ability to churn out a Shakespeare play IF you have the patience to change their typewriter ribbons for a million years. ADVENTURE MALGACHE makes viewers wonder whether Hitch and his crew even possessed opposable thumbs. MALGACHE's nonsensical alternating scenes (flitting between a post-war Parisian theatrical dressing room and war-time Vichy Madagascar) is a contrivance so clumsy that it would have given even the monkeys fits to dream up. Ms. Riefenstahl wouldn't have been caught dead attaching her name to something as counter-productive as MALGACHE. Perhaps Hitch was a double agent.

James Hitchcock "Aventure Malgache" ("Madagascan Adventure") was one of two short French-language propaganda films which Alfred Hitchcock directed for the British Ministry of Information during the Second World War, the other being "Bon Voyage". "Bon Voyage" was intended to publicise the struggle of the French Resistance in mainland France itself, while "Aventure Malgache" deals with the Resistance movement in the French colonies. After the fall of France in 1940 the administration in French Madagascar (like that in some other colonies) supported the collaborationist Vichy regime until the island was liberated by British and Free French forces in 1942. The hero of the film is Paul Clarus, a lawyer and amateur actor, who is a leading light in the Resistance on Madagascar. (He is said to be based upon a real-life figure, Jules François Clermont, who portrays him in the films). His activities include helping anti-Vichy Frenchmen escape from the island to British-controlled territory and running a clandestine pro-Resistance radio station. These activities bring him into conflict with the villainous Jean Michel, who before the war was a criminal whom Clarus prosecuted in court, but who has now become the Vichy regime's "Chef de la Sûreté" on the island. Some Vichy supporters were quite sincere in their belief that Marshal Philippe Petain's regime represented the best hope for the French nation but Michel is a cynical turncoat; when the British arrive we see him replacing a portrait of Petain in his office with one of Queen Victoria (which he has presumably been keeping in preparation for just such an eventuality).In "Bon Voyage" Hitchcock did make some use of his normal suspense techniques, but "Aventure Malgache" is a more straightforward piece of propaganda. In the opening scene Clarus is seen discussing his adventures with some of his actor friends, so there is little suspense about the film; we know from the start that Clarus will survive. As with "Bon Voyage" the film is so different from Hitchcock's normal feature films, even explicitly propagandist ones like "Foreign Correspondence" or "Saboteur", that I will not award it a mark out of 10. It did, however, expand my French vocabulary by one word. "Malgache" is French for "Madagascan"; on the basis that "gacher" is French for "to spoil" I would otherwise have translated the title as "An Adventure Badly Spoiled".

MartinHafer The film is about the French controlled island of Madagascar. Once the French surrendered to Germany in 1940 and became their allies, their colonies around the globe were left to decide whether to go along with the Vichy government or throw in their lot with the British and continue to fight the Nazis. The film particularly follows one man on the island who is the head of the underground movement.This is a very odd film. During WWII, Alfred Hitchcock made two short propaganda films in French! Everyone speaks French and I wonder if Hitchcock himself understood the language. Considering how weak this short film is, I assume he didn't! Unlike most propaganda films, this film is way too talky and slow. Additionally, it's not exactly inspiring. There simply is no action or suspense and the film is amazingly uninspiring. All these factors led the British government to say "thanks but no thanks" to the director when he tried to help out with the war effort.FYI--I noticed one reviewer gave the short a 10. When I checked, I noticed that out of dozens and dozens of their reviews I perused, all had received 10s--every last one.

mattker A recent article on Australian Web Journal SENSESOFCINEMA brings a lot of new information (cast, script,etc.)on this underrated film.For example,interesting link between the French actor who plays MICHEL, and a character in a well known Stanley Donen movie.A connection between DZ91,code name of a British Secret Service agent during WWII and Paul CLARUS,a French lawyer from Madagascar. Another point of view regarding the MOLIERE PLAYERS and some members of the Company.Documents from the British National Archives, and from a French private collection.