"Merlusse" is French schoolboy slang for codfish, and M. Blanchard, a professor at a certain lycée, was known to his victims by that name. On Christmas eve, when some twenty of the students—orphans, foreigners or just plain "unwanteds"—had to remain in the boarding school, Merlusse is placed in charge. His glass eye glares at them stonily, his good one with no less severity. He sets them to tasks, marches like a proctor up and down the aisles, exacts to the utmost the last measure of discipline. But when the youngsters awake in the morning, there are toys by each bed in the dormitory and M. Blanchard, no longer to be called Merlusse, is exposed for the softhearted fraud he is.
Henri Poupon
as Blanchard dit Merlusse
André Pollack
as Le proviseur
Annie Toinon
as Nathalie
Thommeray
as le censeur
Jean Castan
as Galubert
Le Petit Jacques
as Villepontoux
d'Armans
as Philippard
Fernand Bruno
as Catusse
Robert Aviérinos
as Lupin
Robert Chaux
as Godard
Dernard
as Delacre
John Dubrou
as Pic
