A Nous la Liberté (1931)

A NOUS LA LIBERTE  (1931)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: René Clair 
    Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Rolla France,
    Paul Oliver, Jacques Shelly, Andre Michaud
Two cellmates engineer a prison break, but only one of them makes it over the wall. Through luck and resourcefulness, he ends up rich, the owner of a record factory. When his buddy finally gets paroled, he goes to work on the assembly line, not knowing that his old friend is now the big boss. A musical comedy from the early sound era, often cited for its influence on Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times". (Clair was influenced just as much by Chaplin.) There's an irony here you won't find in Chaplin, and you never know when some unlikely band of convicts or factory workers will burst into song. The lyrics are absurdly optimistic, usually in direct counterpoint to the fortunes of the characters singing them.