The Bread Peddler (, ) is a 1950 French-Italian historical drama film directed by Maurice Cloche and starring Vivi Gioi, Philippe Lemaire and Jean Tissier. It is an adaptation of the novel The Bread Peddler by Xavier de Montépin. It was made at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome.

Plot

France, 1860. In Alfortville, a town near Paris, Eng. Labroue has founded a mechanical workshop where his inventions are exploited. The engineer is assisted in his work by the chief engineer Jacques Garaud, intelligent and ambitious. Jacques Garaud has an unrequited love for Jeanne Fortier, a young widow doorkeeper in the workshop; Jeanne is the mother of two children: Georges, who lives with her mother, and Lucie, entrusted to a nurse. Jeanne is surprised by Eng. Labroue as she lights an oil lamp, which is prohibited because of the risk of fires, and is dismissed. Jacques Garaud plans to get rich by stealing the plans for a new machine designed by Eng. Labroue. Surprised by his master during the theft, Jacques kills him with a knife, sets fire to the workshop, makes believe that the fire was started by Jeanne and that he died charred. Jeanne is sentenced to life imprisonment and separated from her children.