Based on an André Lichtenberger novel , « Le Petit Roi « had been impossible to see for years because of royalties;after the unquestionable success of « Poil De Carotte » (1932),it was only natural that the great Julien Duvivier teamed up again with his wiz kid Robert Lynen whose fate was tragic : a resistant fighter in WW2 ,he was tortured and executed by the Nazis.