For this story of a mother urging her unconventional daughter (Odette Joyeux) to marry a distinguished colonel, Tavernier says, “Jean Aurenche wrote an almost entirely original screenplay, keeping only part of the plot from a novel he hated and allowing for more tenderness and greater lyrical subtlety. Aurenche was very much influenced by American burlesque, hence his creative use of objects to create misunderstandings or to create a link between characters who should never have met….Aurenche relates how in 1941 he was hailed by French poet Jean Eluard (who) said: ‘I've just seen your movie, and it's a masterpiece.'…Aurenche adds, ‘I think he was enthralled because in an occupied and humiliated country such as France, it had warmed his heart to see the character played by André Luguet, this elegant and noble officer who seemed so confident.'” Autant-Lara, brilliant director that he was in the 1940s and 1950s, became a supporter of the far right National Front party in the late eighties.