Pierre Adrien Decourcelle was born in Paris on 25 January 1856. His father, Adrien Decourcelle, and his uncle, Adolphe d'Ennery, were both authors. He attended the Lycée Henri-IV, then worked as a merchant and stockbroker before starting to write plays. Decourcelle's first effort, Le Grain de beauté premiered at the Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell on 27 March 1880. In 1882 he wrote the drama L'As de trèfle for Sarah Bernhardt, who performed it at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu. From the 1880s onward he created many comedies, opera libretti and adaptations of novels for the stage. Decourcelle and Léopold Lacour made a play from Paul Bourget's Mensonges, which was first performed on 18 April 1889. Bourget also collaborated with Decourcelle in their adaptation of Idylle tragique for the stage. In October 1897 Decourcelle's French version of William Gillette's play Secret Service was put on by the Theatre Renaissance in Paris. Decourcelle also worked as a journalist for Le Gaulois under the pseudonyms "Choufleuri" and "Valentin". He was a prolific author, turning out cheap novels for the juvenile market. Decourcelle's romans revanchard became popular. These were nationalistic and conservative novels that called for revenge for the loss of Alsace-Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. His novel Les Deux Gosses was his most successful. It was adapted for the cinema by several directors. In 1908 Decourcelle founded a company to adapt literary works to the screen, with Eugène Guggenheim. The Société des Auteurs et des Gens de Lettres became respected for the quality of its productions. Three American serials starring Pearl White were recut and re-arranged into a series called Les Mystères de New-York for French cinemas, screened in Paris between December 1915 and May 1916. While episodes of the silent ciné-roman series were being played in the theaters each week, Decourcelle's versions of the stories were published by Le Matin and the provincial papers. In 1921 SCAGL produced an adaptation by André Antoine of Émile Zola's La Terre. The depiction of brutist morals in a farming environment were toned down considerably for the screen version. Pierre Decourcelle died on 10 October 1926, aged seventy.
Works
Theater
Le Grain de beauté , comedy in one act, Paris, Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell, 27 March 1880
L'As de trèfle , drama in five acts, Paris, Théâtre de l'Ambigu, 15 March 1883
L'Abbé Constantin , comedy in three acts, in collaboration with Hector Crémieux, after the novel by Ludovic Halévy, Paris, Théâtre du Gymnase, 4 November 1887
Le Dragon de la reine , comic opera in three acts, in collaboration with Frantz Beauvallet, music by Léopold de Wenzel, Paris, Théâtre de la Gaîté, 31 March 1888
Mensonges , comedy in for acts and five tableaux, in collaboration with Léopold Lacour, after the novel by Paul Bourget, Paris, Théâtre du Vaudeville, 18 April 1889
Gigolette, drama in one prolog, five acts and eight tableaux, in collaboration with Edmond Tarbé des Sablons, Paris, Théâtre de l'Ambigu, 25 November 1893
La Rue du Sentier, comedy in four acts by Pierre Decourcelle and André Maurel, Théâtre de l'Odéon, 16 April 1913
Novels and stories
Le Chapeau gris , novel
Les Deux Gosses , novel illustrated by H. Meyer, Jonnard, and others, in 3 volumes, published in Paris by Éditions Rouff. Later adapted to the theatre and the cinema.
Fanfan, second volume of Les Deux Gosses
La Chambre d'amour
Mam'zelle Misère
Brune et blonde
Crime de femme
Gigolette, novel derived from his play, La librairie illustrée, Paris, 1895
La Baillonnée , novel in four parts, c. 1904
Les Mystères de New-York - Les Romans-Cinémas, éditions Renaissance du Livre
Les Fêtards de Paris
Le Curé du Moulin-Rouge
Film adaptations
Decourcelle's Les Deux Gosses was adapted as a film by several directors.
Les Deux Gosses - Épisode 1: La faute d'une mère directed by Adrien Caillard
Les Deux Gosses - Épisode 2: Fanfan et Claudinet directed by Adrien Caillard
