影片根据莫帕桑三个短篇组合而成：第一个叫做《面具》，讲一个老人如何借助一副奇妙的面具来恢复青春的容颜，舞会的场景非常著名；第二个《泰列埃夫人之家》讲一个妓院因为暂时休业，老板带着一帮妓女到乡间玩耍，并发生短暂的恋情；第三个《模特儿》讲一名女模特儿因恋上艺术家，跳楼自杀，摔成残废，艺术家跟她结婚

故事发生在19世纪末的巴黎，在灯红酒绿的上流社会中，一位名为露易丝（达尼尔·达黎欧 Danielle Darrieux 饰）的贵妇显得格外耀眼。露易丝的丈夫是一名极具威信的将军，故事要从将军送给露易丝的一副耳环说起。
为了偿还赌债，露易丝将耳环低价卖给了一位珠宝商人，对丈 夫则谎称耳环丢失。迫于将军的名望，珠宝商人将事情的真相如实告知。将军不声不响的将耳环买了回来，转手送给了相好许久的情妇劳拉（Lia Di Leo 饰）以讨其欢心，可是没过多久，这副耳环便辗转来到了意大利外交官德纳提（维托里奥·德·西卡 Vittorio De Sica 饰）的手中并最终物归原主回到了露易丝的身边。

影片改编自著名作家兹威格的同名小说，由美国环球影片公司出品。
1885年，14的丽莎（琼·芳登 Joan Fontaine 饰）暗恋着住在隔壁的钢琴家斯蒂芬（路易斯·乔丹 Louis Jourdan 饰）。风流的斯蒂芬常把女人带进他的寓所，而年少的丽莎则对那个神秘世界羡慕不已。即便搬走后她仍对钢琴家难以忘怀。当她出落成了一个美丽的女郎，回来寻找钢琴家，并同他发生了关系。钢琴家很快将丽莎如其他女子般遗忘。丽莎生下了他的儿子后来嫁给了一个奥地利贵族。15年后，两人再次相逢，她离开丈夫最后一次献身于这个她惟一所爱的男人，钢琴家如往常一样逢场作戏，并将她很快忘记。最后儿子得伤寒而死，心力交瘁丽莎写了封长信给钢琴家，述说了15年来她从未停止的爱。丽莎死后，悲痛的丈夫要求同钢琴家决斗，在读到丽莎这封感人至深的信后，原本准备逃走的他登上了驶往决斗地的马车……

In 1936, Ophüls left France for the Netherlands, where he was ironically (or perhaps fittingly) granted an extravagant budget for this parable about the vagaries of capitalism in which a bank courier bounces between economic calamity and monetary bonanza. Not a penny was wasted, though, on the virtuoso camera movement and subjective compositions of renowned cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan.

在发现自己儿子比依·哈珀的情人的尸体之后，露西亚将尸体藏匿起来，并断定是她女儿杀死了这个男人。马汀代表他的伴侣Nagel前来勒索露西亚之际却为之而倾倒。Nagel想要钱，而马汀为保护露西亚却杀死了Nagel，之后他选择自杀来了断与有夫之妇的露西亚的关系。

雷纳德（芭芭拉·贝尔·戈迪斯 Barbara Bel Geddes 饰）从小的梦想就是能嫁给一个金龟婿，做全职家庭主妇，长大后，她和百万富翁史密斯（罗伯特·瑞安 Robert Ryan 饰）相爱，并且最终携手步入了婚姻的殿堂。可是，结婚之后雷纳德才发现，婚姻生活并不是她想象的那么美好，而史密斯也有着不为人知的另一面，雷纳德想要和史密斯离婚。
雷纳德离家出走了，她宁愿去做诊所接待员，自食其力，也不愿意再活在史密斯的淫威之下。在诊所，雷纳德邂逅了名为拉里（詹姆斯·梅森 James Mason 饰）的医生，两人坠入了爱河，可与此同时，雷纳德发现自己竟然怀孕了。

萝拉·蒙蒂斯是19世纪欧洲贵族的宠妓，在马戏团里兜售自己的艳史，这似乎是她为放纵付出的代价。这是奥菲尔的最后一部电影，影片以此作为框架，用闪回拼贴的方式表现箩拉巡回欧洲各国表演记忆，尤其她与巴伐利亚的路德维系国王以及作曲家李斯特之间的关系。

加比因为一位已婚教师自杀，他告诉她说他离不开她，而被学校开除。尽管她没有做错任何事情，却为他的行为受到了惩罚。

法兰西斯（沃尔夫冈·利本艾纳 Wolfgang Liebeneiner 饰）和公爵夫人一直保持着一段地下恋情，这让法兰西斯感到非常的郁闷。在一场晚会上，法兰西斯意外邂逅了名为克里斯蒂（玛达·施耐德 Magda Schneider 饰）的女子，当晚，法兰西斯不小心将帽子丢在了克里斯蒂那里。之后，两人常常出来约会，久而久之产生了感情。
法兰西斯知道，想要和克里斯蒂谈一段有结果的恋爱，他必须先结束同公爵夫人之间的关系，可是很显然公爵夫人并不愿意如此，更何况她手上还有着法兰西斯家里的钥匙。最终，两人的关系还是被公爵知道了，为了逃避，法兰西斯决定离开当地，走之前，他没能够见到克里斯蒂，一段感情就这样无疾而终。

故事从军人和妓女开始，牵涉勾连一整串的爱恋纠葛，包括女朴、有钱人、夫妻、诗人、年轻女孩、已婚男子、女演员和公爵；10个场景，以5男5女在华尔滋舞蹈交换舞伴为比喻。每段情事在接力的情况下将各式欲望和情感不断递移下去，就像场景中的旋转木马，回转一圈后再绕回原点。影片对性爱的描述在当时十分大胆，并以讽刺的方式对爱情的真诚个虚伪作出了探讨……

In the late 1800's, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, falls for Sophie Chotek, a Czech countess. He's already a problem to the Crown because of his political ideas; this love affair with someone not of royal blood breeches protocol. The Crown allows the union only after the couple agrees to a morganatic marriage. The emperor further neutralizes Franz by making him inspector general of the army, sending him afield for months at a time. In June of 1914, fearing for his safety, Sophie seeks permission to accompany Franz to Sarajevo; protocol dictates that no army troops attend Franz while she is present. An assassin strikes. Their deaths spark World War I.

Two ghosts attend an engagement party, unseen by the other guests. One ghost, Dupont, is the father of the bride-to-be. He looks back on his marriage to her mother. His wife Annette was always very unhappy; business kept him away from home. The doctor recommended indulging her whims for furs and jewels. Then Uncle Émile suggested a trip to Paris. All went well until the day they went to the circus and saw the lion-tamer, Rodrigo the Conqueror. Rodrigo becomes Annette's lover ... and the second ghost... But wait a second. There's a third ghost at the party!
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Annette is giving an engagement party for her daughter. However, the daughter's true love is not her fiance, but an air ace. The ghost of Annette's dead husband comes to watch the party. He is joined by the ghosts of two other lovers of Annette, the lion tamer Rodrigo, and her first sweetheart, a sailor. The three ghosts discuss how their relationships to Annette ruined their lives.

To Max Ophüls this was an assignment (from the UFA), a pure routine job. One hardly recognizes the later Ophüls in this film (shortly made before his masterpiece "Liebelei"), but still Ophüls made this routine job into a well-paced, stylish and sometimes extremely funny romantic comedy; he probably could not do it any other way. The script is fine with some hilarious dialogue. The use of the surnames of the characters is simple but clever.
Having Ophüls in mind the film can also be considered a celebration of happy-go-lucky life: contrasted are those who live an easy going, wine and dine life with those whose narrow-minded life is based on punctuality and mineral water. Maybe that is why the film was banned in 1937: it was considered a film that could endanger public order and national-socialist feelings.
Good cast with Heinz Rühmann who shows his natural comic talent at best and Max Adalbert who is very good as the grumpy uncle; supporting cast good as well. Chauvinism makes me want to point out Lien Deyers (as Gina), a fine, charming and attractive actress from The Netherlands who had a successful career in German cinema.

A country girl goes to Paris to work as a chorus girl and becomes involved in dope-peddling. Finally tiring of her sordid life, she returns to the country to marry a milkman.

一群电影人拍外景时候遇到了一个年轻漂亮能歌善舞的姑娘，大家都非常喜欢她，希望带她进入电影，打造成明星，于是姑娘在各色人等的阿谀和赞美中来来去去，进入到了摄影棚，却被发现并没有想象的那么有天赋。

Performace of Chopin's Valse Brilliante by Alexander Brailovsky, one of 2 classical soundies that Ophüls made in Paris.
As it comes from old VHS, some noises are detected, but I will put it for its rarity.

Evelyne Morin has known much misfortune in her life. Widowed, after being married to an unscrupulous adventurer, she ends up working as a call-girl in a Montmartre nightclub just so that she can bring up her young son. But Evelyne has hopes of escaping from this degrading life. One evening, she meets Georges, a Canadian friend, whom she once considered marrying. Since she last met him, Georges has become rich and highly respected as a doctor. To conceal her downfall, Evelyne pretends to be a respectable woman, with the help of Paul Mazuraud, an odious man who provides her with the wherewithal for her to keep up this deception. When her son unintentionally gives the game away, Evelyne places him in the care of her Canadian friend and then fades away into the fog...