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The Golden Fish (J.-Y. Cousteau; Columbia). Once upon a time there was a goldfish. It lived in a tank in a carnival booth and waited to be won by the holder of the lucky number. One day the goldfish saw a small boy looking into the tank. The boy wanted with all his heart to win the goldfish and take it home, but he had no money to bet with. The goldfish and the boy looked at each other for some time, wishing and wondering. Then a big man with a black beard came. He looked like a professor and was obviously the wrong type for a goldfish. When he saw the one in the tank, his eyebrows waggled excitedly, and he bet more than half the board--and won. In terror the goldfish hid in the toy castle at the bottom of the tank, and no matter how hard the attendant rapped on the castle with his net, the fish would not come out.

Blackbeard became upset, and was about to reach down into the water with his big, hairy hand when by accident he spilled the bottle of milk the boy was carrying. Since he was not really a mean man, but only hairy and unattractive to goldfish, he gave the boy two coins, one to pay for the milk, another to spend. The boy immediately put the extra coin on the right color and won the goldfish, which swam eagerly into the attendant's net.

So begins the story of The Golden Fish, a prizewinner at the Cannes Film Festival last May and now a candidate for an Oscar. Altogether the most charming short subject (running time: 18 minutes) in live action that the French film industry has produced since The Red Balloon (TIME, March 18, 1957), Fish swims along at a swift but graceful pace. Director Edmond Sechan tells his story clearly without words--and therefore without tiresome subtitles.

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