Plucking the Daisy (French title: En effeuillant la marguerite) is a 1956 French comedy film directed by Marc Allégret.
Agnès Dumont (Brigitte Bardot) is discovered by her father, a highly respectable general, to be an erotic novelist. He plans to send her to boarding school as punishment, but instead she goes to Paris to live with her brother. On the train there, she meets Daniel Roy (Daniel Gélin), whom she falls in love with. At her brother's place, Agnès mistakenly sells a valuable book by Balzac and uses the money to buy a purse, so she is forced to earn the money back, which she decides to do by entering a striptease contest. She disguises herself so as to not be recognized, resulting in Daniel falling for the mysterious girl, much to Agnès' chagrin.
Tropes:
- Pen Name: Agnès wrote a scandalous novel under the pen name of A.D., which are simply her initials.
- Starving Artist: Agnès' brother Hubert moved to Paris to become an artist. Agnès thinks he is rich, but the truth is he is quite poor and works as a museum guide to pay the bills.
- Two-Person Love Triangle: Agnès enters a striptease contest to make money quickly, but when she learns Daniel is covering the contest for a magazine, she disguises herself with a mask and a wig and adopts the name Sophia. This leads to complications when Daniel becomes interested in the mysterious Sophia.
- What's He Got That I Ain't Got?!: Agnès' boyfriend becomes interested in the mysterious Sophia. At one point, Agnès exclaims: "What does she have that I don't?" A valid question, given Agnès and Sophia are one and the same.
- You Can Leave Your Hat On: Agnès performs in an amateur strip contest to earn money to pay for a rare book she mistakenly sold. Agnès' performance is mostly tease but the strip performed by the contestant just before her (in the uncensored version) goes all the way to full nudity.
