Near Marseilles, the ship sank,carrying with it contraband cigarettes and the corpse of a murdered girl. At first it was not a problem, but it has moved, and so the port authorities have hired Jean Gabin to refloat it. He has hired Henri Vidal to do the diving. But the sister of the dead girl, Andrée Debar, is in town looking for her sister, and the owner of the ship, Jean-Roger Caussimon, doesn't want the corpse or the cigarettes found.
Director Edmond T. Gréville has constructed a very 1930s-style movie, but in the post-war years, the easy corruption of the portside society has a different feel to it, mildly disapproving -- and murder, of course, remains a big no-no, even if to Caussimon it seems no more than part of his business. There's no magical realism, no divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will. There's just money, sex, and chance no matter how honest or corrupt one is.
Director Edmond T. Gréville has constructed a very 1930s-style movie, but in the post-war years, the easy corruption of the portside society has a different feel to it, mildly disapproving -- and murder, of course, remains a big no-no, even if to Caussimon it seems no more than part of his business. There's no magical realism, no divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will. There's just money, sex, and chance no matter how honest or corrupt one is.