Response
Unfortunately for Lewton's hopes for breaking out of the horror genre, Mademoiselle Fifi did not do well at previews, or at the box office once it was released, and was by far the worst grossing of Lewton's films. Some critics, however, thought the film was well worth while. James Agee wrote in The Nation:
I don't know of any American film which has tried to say as much, as pointedly, about the performance of the middle class in war. There is a gallant, fervent quality about the whole picture, faults and all, which gives it a peculiar kind of life and likeableness, and which signifies that there is one group of men working in Hollywood who have neither lost nor taken care to conceal the purity of their hope and intentions.
Read more about this topic: Mademoiselle Fifi (film)
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