Cherchez la femme - Wikipedia

The expression comes from the novel The Mohicans of Paris(Les Mohicans de Paris) published 1854–1859 by Alexandre Dumas (père).[1] The first use in the novel reads: Cherchez la femme, pardieu! cherchez la femme![2]In English: Look for the woman, by God! Look for the woman!The phrase is repeated several times in the novel. Dumas also used the phrase in his 1864 theatrical adaptation, which reads: Il y a une femme dans toutes les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: « Cherchez la femme ! »[3]Translated into English this reads: There is a woman in every case; as soon as someone brings me a report, I say, 'Look for the woman!'The phrase embodies a cliché of detective pulp fiction: no matter what the problem, a woman is often the root cause. The phrase has thus come to refer to explanations that automatically find the same root cause, no matter the specifics of the problem. In his 1963 detective novel The Chill, Ross Macdonald's sleuth Lew Archer offers a wry analysis of the concept, stating: "When a woman is murdered, you ask her estranged husband where he was at the time. It's the corollary of cherchez la femme."[4]In the 1931 film The Front Page, the security guard called "Woodenshoes" (Spencer Charters), is convinced that Molly Malloy (Mae Clark) is hiding escaped prisoner, Earl Williams (George E. Stone). He keeps trying to tell everyone while repeatedly adding, "cherchez la femme!" In the 1936 film My Man Godfrey, Gail Patrick's character Cornelia Bull ...

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