The Journey of Clair's Le Million (1931)

Renè Clair’s Le Million (1931) was at one point considered one of the greatest movies of all time, over seventy-five years later the movie is not masterpiece it once was, but it remains a terrific movie.
Le Million was made just a few years after the advent of movie sound and is one of the early movie musicals. The movie is one of the truest examples of the idea that it is more about the journey than the outcome, you know the end of the movie almost right from the beginning, but that does not make it any less enjoyable. The movie is a mixture of drama, comedy, romance, and music. It is the story of a man deeply indebt who wins a million florin in the Dutch lottery. His fiancé then gives away his jacket with the ticket in it to a man who is in need. The movie is about the quest to retrieve the coat with the ticket in it. Le Million is the precursor to It’s a Mad Mad Mad World and Rat Race.
Clair keeps his camera relatively stable and lets the story place out. The movie is touching and beautiful, the scene of Michel and Beatrice’s moment in the background of the opera is unbelievable. This is where you see the legacy of the silent movies, they say so much with a single word. The movie is a fun romp through Paris and while it is clearly dated but it retains much its charm.