Corny or not?

At one point in Marcel Carné’s 1939 realist drama (and Mussolini Cup nominee), Le jour se lève, François, the factory sand-blaster (Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. no. 379, 1925: “probably the most dangerous of all the mineral-dust hazards”), enters a variety hall where Françoise, his beloved, is preparing to make eyes at the devilishly handsome and comparatively wealthy dog-artiste, Valentin. The chanteuse is singing something about the republic, struggle, and … burning sand.

(I’m looking forward to a pan-European remake which will replace this number with the schlager Schön war die Zeit and its Brennend heißer Wüstensand (“burning hot desert sand”).)

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