When Hollywood directors tackle history, they generally dilute it almost out of existence with luke-warm plot-material and sensational pap. In contrast, the French-made movie, "Marseillaise," has happily succeeded in making the truth palatable without jazzing it up or cheapening it. The result is a feast alike for the uncritical moviegoer and the historical purist. The film makes no pretense at being complete or prophetic, but confines itself to a few brief months during 1789, the so-called "honeymoon of the Revolution," focussing interest on the adventures of a Marseilles citizen army. Without an excessive amount of flag-waving, it waxes enthusiastic over the fraternal movement, as it colorfully depicts the march to Paris and the storming of the Tuileries. Louis XVI is portrayed not as a Hollywood caricature of an egotistical sot, but as the gourmandish monarch he was, with his glimmerings of intelligence and his fatal irresolution in times of crisis. Compact and clear-cut, the entire narrative is spiced with Gallic humor and fragments of eighteenth-century music.