Production
Producer Val Lewton wanted to break out of producing horror films, and suggested that RKO make a period film based on the short stories of Guy de Maupassant, with Erich von Stroheim and Simone Simon. George Sanders was approached about playing Lieutenant Fifi.
Prior to directing Mademoiselle Fifi, his first official solo directorial credit, film editor Robert Wise had directed retakes and additional sequences on The Magnificent Ambersons while Orson Welles was in South America, and had replaced director Gunther von Fritch on Val Lewton's The Curse of the Cat People. His work on Cat People convinced Lewton to use him again on Fifi. Wise also directed The Body Snatcher for Lewton in 1945.
Lewton and Wise studied hundreds of period paintings by artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Delacroix, Daumier and Detaille, to find the look they wanted. Wise later commented: "Because those were low-budget films, we had to stretch our imagination and get results without too much to work with. How we staged them, how we lit them, how we placed our camera was to get strong, effective results without having the material at hand."
Mademoiselle Fifi was in production from 23 March through late April 1944 with the working title of "The Silent Bell". Shooting took 22 days on a budget of $200,000 - a record low amount for an American costume drama in the sound era. Sets left over from RKO's 1939 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame were utilized, but because of the skimpy budget, cardboard sets were also used at some points. The outdoor snow scenes were shot at Big Bear Lake, California.
To improve her figure when filming, the French actress Simone Simon wore false breasts which she called "my eyes." Before each take, she would call out "Bring me my eyes!"
Read more about this topic: Mademoiselle Fifi (film)
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