I saw this amazing French film, but I don't know the name of it.....?

Question

The film was most likely made a while ago, I'm guessing around the 1950's. It was in black and white. It is about a woman named Agnes, who needs to get money quickly in order to pay off a big debt, so she joins a beauty pageant to make money. She uses a mask, and an alias of Sophia in order to disguise her true identity. The problem is, she thinks that her lover is falling in love with the mysterious Sophia without realizing that it's actually her in a mask.

If you know the name of this movie I would really appreciate it. I would most likely want to see it again, so the title would help. Thanks!

Answer 1

En effeuillant la marguerite (1956) (black and white)

Here's the plot:

When ultra-respectable General Dumont discovers that his nubile daughter Agnes is "A.D.", author of a scandalous under-the-counter novel, he wants her shipped to a convent; but she escapes to Paris, planning to live with her brother, ostensibly a rich artist but really a poor guide in the Balzac Museum. This misunderstanding gets both in serious trouble, and puts Agnes in immediate need of money...just the amount offered as grand prize in an amateur striptease contest, which her new boyfriend, reporter Daniel, is covering for his magazine...

Brigitte Bardot ...  Agnès Dumont

Luciana Paluzzi ...  Sophia

P.S.--Here's further confirmation that this is the one that you describe:

Agnes' father, a general, was so upset she had written a book about their town, he forceably was sending her away by train to a convent, but instead she hopped onto the train to Paris, needing to borrow money from the news men for the billet. That created the connection, so that the two guys would need to keep track of her. In the process one of them, the confirmed batchelor and womanizer, fell in love with her. Agnes went to the address her brother had given her, but instead of his house it was a museum, instead of being the wealthy painter he claimed, he was a poor tour guide. Wanting clothes and other things, Agnes took a valuable book and sold it, and that is what created her desperate need for 180,000 Fr, her brother insisted they buy it back and replace it. She decided to enter the strip tease contest which pays 200,000 Fr to the winner. (I suspect about $200 to $300 equivalent in 1950 money).

Shy, she calls herself "Sophia" and decides to wear a mask while stripping, and she wins. Her fiancee goes into her dressing room, unaware that she is really Agnes, and pretends to be in love with Sophia, so he can get a story. This confuses Agnes, and creates the romantic tension for the last scene. The finals of the contest are in her town of Vichy, her brother is there, her dad is a judge, her fiancee finds out the truth, she gets someone else to strip for her, presumably everyone turns out happy.