This tells the story of Belle (Josette Day) a girl left to look after her father and their estate while her vain sisters wine and dine the days away and her brother is a drunkard. It is Belle however who has the affections of the handsome Avenant...
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This tells the story of Belle (Josette Day) a girl left to look after her father and their estate while her vain sisters wine and dine the days away and her brother is a drunkard. It is Belle however who has the affections of the handsome Avenant (Jean Marais). However she only has time for her father. Then one day after an unsuccessful business trip Belle's father gets lost on the way home and stumbles across a mysterious castle. Entering it in the hope of shelter he finds corridors with candleabras that light up on their own and table centrepieces shaped like human arms that move and serve him. Frightened he leaves, but not before retrieving a rose for Belle in the garden. However the castle's owner, the Beast (Jean Marais) catches him and strikes a deal with him. He or one of his daughters must return back to the Beast in a few days or suffer the consequences. When the father returns home he explains what has happened and so Belle feeling guilty as it was her want of a rose that caused it sneaks out and takes her father's place at the Beast's magical castle. When she arrives she is horrified by the Beast, but eventually her feelings soften for him. Despite the Beast's proposal of marriage to her each night, she refuses. But who will she choose to marry the sensitive Beast or the handsome Avenant. The visual of the halls with disembodied arms holding candelabras that light themselves up, the dinner table that serves its guests on its own, statues whose eyes move or the talking mirror add to the magical atmosphere, becoming iconic images that have been emulated ever since. Jean Marais tackles both roles of the Beast and his love-rival Avenant, but it is as the Beast that he shines.