Pagnol was a schoolteacher before writing his knowing satire, Topaze, and Merlusse benefits as much from that experience as from his having also been, inevitably, a schoolboy. It is Pagnol's own "Zero for Conduct," shot in a boarding school using school kids as actors. It tells of a bearded, one-eyed teacher who is nicknamed Merlusse (codfish) by the kids who fear and revile him. As always with Pagnol, the film is a delicate balance of parched realism and profound humanity, giving no slack to melodrama and much to argot and observation. Variety, in 1936, raved: "Curious and deeply interesting relation of boy and teacher, in a dozen phases, is masterfully painted throughout...He's gone deep into the feelings of schoolboys." Presented without subtitles but with written English synopsis.