Resistance

The head of a school in a little French country town encourages the playful romances between his young students, as well as a love of jazz music.

Wounded during a rugby match he'd come to Paris to play, Tonin Bonnafous, a thoroughbred southerner, settled in Paris with a former stalag mate he'd happily met. Tonin liked the asylum. His friends are charming, and there's a neighbor, Martine, a young cinema extra, whom Tonin finds to his liking. Through his electrician friend, Tonin gets a job on the radio, and through his young neighbor, he even gets a job as an extra in the cinema.

Eusèbe Bonbonneau, a solicitor's clerk, learns one day that a candidate bearing his name runs for election as a member of parliament. In fact Frazier, a crooked businessman, has urged an accomplice to impersonate Eusèbe, in order to obtain, through this straw man, authorizations for the creation of a casino in Sanceau-les-Nains and to make big money out of it. Eusébe decides to go to Paris to investigate. In the capital he meets Mariska, an exuberant actress who encourages him to try to get elected. As a result, thanks to her the true Bonbonneau becomes a member of parliament and the crook's accomplice is arrested. But Frazier is not impressed and, changing tactics, he starts manipulating Eusèbe.

Dédé de Montmartre, former king of the accordion, has become a bad boy who lives off drug trafficking and prostitution. He sets his sights on a young girl, fresh and naive, Odette, saleswoman at Galeries Lafayette. But he is touched by the charm of this midinette.

Suspected of murder, a man disappears under mysterious conditions, which only increases the charges against him.

A poor youth of noble birth needs to marry. Will the cynical, calculating upstart who wants to set him on the right course be able to help?

A young sculptor presides over the destinies of a student club where a miserable young girl ends up one evening. The treasurer of the association falls in love with the young girl who returns the favor. The war. The sculptor comes back blind. Out of gratitude, the young girl marries him and restores his confidence in his talent; out of discretion, the treasurer steps aside.

The workers Legendre and Martinet have won a large sum in the national lottery. Instead of squandering it, they had the good idea to invest it in industry. Happy in business, they soon find themselves at the head of a fortune. But their characters are very different. Legendre, who is brave and honest, narrowly escapes the malevolence of a couple of harlots. Martinet, his former work companion, has become a crooked and formidable financier. Both will face each other in court, the honesty of the first finally triumphing over the greed of the second.

Benjamine, the daughter of the chocolate maker Lapistole, has broken down in her car, spends a night at Paul Norman's, imposes herself casually and causes the break-up of the engagement of this peaceful civil servant with the daughter of his department head. A friend maintains contact between Paul and Benjamine, becomes the head of publicity at Lapistole and when Norman is dismissed through Benjamine's fault, brings his two friends closer and proves to them that they are made for each other.

Benoit, the head guard of Clouville Prison, prefers to be liked than feared. This basic principle transforms the jail-house into a joyful prison, where all the inmates live amicably together. Among them, various colorful characters : a farmer, a poacher, a distiller, a forger, two pickpockets, a safe-cracker, a gangster and... a good-looking guy who pleases Rosette, Benoit's daughter, well. But too much leniency takes its toll : after Vauclin, the gangster, manages to escape and a complaint is filed against "the deplorable disorder reigning in the joyful prison", Benoit is given early retirement. He will know how to take advantage of his new status live a joyful life with his wife, his daughter and André, his son in law, in fact the nice-looking young prisoner who, in the meantime, has been cleared of all charges.

Discovering his wife's relationship with a middle-class snob, a husband tries his best to break this relationship by the seducer himself and ends up leaving with his wife for another wedding night in Venice.

Catherine Vidal is a featherbrained wife who imagines that her husband cheats on her. To wash away the alleged stigma, Catherine hires a young man who will pose as her lover. The (double) trouble is that not only is Catherine's husband innocent but that Catherine and her "employee" fall in love for good as well.

A prestigious Paris doctor is tempted by a woman he knew in his youth, whose politician husband has neglected her.But will he in turn neglect his duties toward work and family?

A wealthy man has two sons,one of them is legitimate,the other is not.The first offspring has had a life of luxury and he has become a lazy good for nothing whereas the youthful indiscretion has turned into an artist.He is nicknamed "Gringalet" .Now his father wants him to meet his half-brother ,his mother-in-law and the rest of the family. Gringalet will turn this bourgeois family upside down:they become nice,the big brother becoming a perfect businessman who stops scouring nightclubs to spend most of his time with his fiancee Josette.There's the rub,cause Gringalet is also in love with her.

1944, France experiences its last days of German occupation. A microcosm representative of the various attitudes adopted during this troubled period, some heroic, others less brilliant, the Grégeois family, scattered by the war, will strengthen its ties according to the Allied advance on the territory and the liberation of Paris, with its joys but also its sorrows, because not all of its members will survive the relative chaos that will characterize this end of the world war.

When Paul returns to claim his estranged father's department store, he faces a frosty stepmother and a rebellious half-sister. His determination revives the once-thriving Galeries Parisiennes, healing familial rifts, and leaving a lasting bond with wise Marie-Louise.