Barry (1949)
Directed by Richard Pottier

Film Review

It is more than likely that the success of the first Lassie film - Lassie Come Home (1943) - may have had something to do with the popularity of this lachrymose melodrama, which somehow managed to attract an audience of just over four million in France.  As ludicrous as the plot is, Barry is one of director Richard Pottier's more engaging films, even though the sentimentality is laid on a bit thick in places and the characters are frankly ridiculous (the human ones at least).  Having played one man of the cloth to great acclaim in Maurice Cloche's Oscar winner Monsieur Vincent (1947), Pierre Fresnay looks at ease in a similar saintly role, although this time he has his work cut out to prevent his photogenic co-star - an adorable St Bernard dog (actually, several St Bernard dogs) - from completely stealing his thunder.

With self-sacrificing lifesaver Fresnay and his cute canine sidekicks monopolising our attention, the romantic leads Simone Valère and Gérard Landry barely get a look-in - what their lack of screen presence begins, a lacklustre and hopelessly muddled script completes.  Valère, Landry, and pretty well most of the cast just dissolve into the picturesque alpine background, and it is only Fresnay, his dogs, and some well-worn character actors (Pauline Carton, Yves Deniaud and Jean Brochard) who make any impression.  The horribly contrived narrative isn't help by an unnecessary flashback structure that merely jumbles things up, presumably in an attempt to conceal the gaping flaws in the badly slung together plot.  With a stronger cast, Pottier may have had an easier job covering up the story weaknesses.  As it is, he relies far too much on canine power to come to the rescue of a floundering turkey.

On the plus side, the film is attractively shot - the panoramic exteriors filmed in the alps are imbued with a savage beauty that lends more than a touch of poetry and fatalism to the proceedings.  Fresnay once again cuts a sympathetic figure as a man of God whose faith is tested by both adversity and his human failings.  The later scenes in the film where he loses his beloved canine companion but then forgives the dog's killer are heartbreaking and played with genuine feeling.  The problem is that, like every other character in this tacky imbroglio, Fresnay's Father Théotime lacks depth and struggles to be much more than a stock movie archetype - you only have to compare it with Fresnay's character in Maurice Cloche's more sober film to see the truth of this.  Barry is a cute little tear-jerker for dog lovers, but nothing more.

Film Synopsis

In 1880, in a French alpine village near the border with Italy, Angelina is passionately in love with Sylvain Bavoizet, not knowing that she has an equally fervent admirer in Théotime, an old friend of hers who is twenty years her senior.  Renouncing the woman he has long pined for, Théotime has made up his mind to become a priest and join the convent of Saint Bernard, a remote hospice dedicated to rescuing unfortunates who lose their way in the alps.  Angelina's father, the mean-spirited innkeeper Cavazza, has already decided that his daughter will marry the more prosperous Jean-Marie Sondaz.  His hopes dashed, Sylvain enlists in the French army and is soon caught up in Napoleon's Italian campaign.

On hearing that her lover is dead, Angelina marries Sondaz, and the couple leave to start a new life in America.  Thirteen years later, Angelina returns to the region with her husband and their infant daughter Gisèle.  Caught in a massive avalanche, Angelina narrowly escapes death and is rescued by Théotime and his faithful dog Barry.  In the search for Angelina's missing daughter, Barry comes across a fatigued Sylvain who, mistaking the dog for a fox, delivers it a fatal blow with his knife.  The stricken dog just makes it back to the hospice and dies in his master's arms.  Once Sylvain and Angelina have been reunited, Théotime sets out once more to look for the missing child, accompanied by Barry's son. Only one of them will return...