Were it not for the final 15 unbelievable minutes, I could have given this one 9, because the direction is assured, and the cinematography by Armand Thirard is wonderfully evocative, both of Les Halles and the Seine riverbank. Gabin and Blain playing two men suckered by a woman give excellent performances, Lucienne Bogaert as the woman's junkie mother gives another in a long line of vicious performances (how I've loved to hate her over the years), and the woman herself, Daniele Delorme, playing the crazed daughter of Gabin and Bogaert manages to hold her emotions in check until those final unbelievable minutes.
I grew up watching Duvivier's films: Carnet de bal, Pepe le moko and La Bandera. I saw in them a mastery of detail and a way of working with actors that pleased me very much. His work in the 50's doesn't equal what he did then.
I grew up watching Duvivier's films: Carnet de bal, Pepe le moko and La Bandera. I saw in them a mastery of detail and a way of working with actors that pleased me very much. His work in the 50's doesn't equal what he did then.