Many critics consider The Baker's Wife to be the greatest film of Marcel Pagnol. As in The Fanny Trilogy, Pagnol, the dramatist of his native Provence, infuses this film with humor, compassion, and what has been called a "neo-pagan" philosophy embodied in its memorable characters. Amid the tragi-comic situations from the daily life of a Provençal village emerges the case of the baker whose wife is having an affair with a handsome shepherd. His refusal to bake any more bread causes the desperate townspeople to rally to his defense and rout out the culprit lover. The Baker's Wife is largely a vehicle for the magnificent actor Raimu as the baker. A profoundly warm and funny comedy, it is also a classic of cuckoldry, as poignant and powerful in its way as The Blue Angel.