This may be Yves Allegret's finest hour and it's unquestionably the first really Great performance from Simone Signoret, who would, of course, go on to give dozens more. Younger brother of Marc, Yves Allegret is often dismissed as little more than a Journeyman director but here he gives us one of the first important post-war French films, black as night and featuring a mother-daughter combination targeting vulnerable 'nice' guys that anticipated Duvivier's Voice Les temps des assassin by some six years. If Signoret walks - or perhaps rides would be more appropriate, given the setting - away with the movie she is well supported by Jane Marken as her mother and Bernard Blier as the unsuspecting sap she marries and exploits. This is a key film in the development of post-war French Cinema, leaves the New Wavelet for dead and should be taught in Film Schools everywhere.
Review of Manèges
