Derrière la façade (1939)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Directors:

Georges Lacombe
Yves Mirande

Writers:

Yves Mirande (screenplay) &
Georges Lacombe (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

28 September 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Paris

Cast

Lucien Baroux	...	Le commissaire Boucheron
Jules Berry	...	Alfrédo D'Avila
André Lefaur	...	Corbeau
Gaby Morlay	...	Gaby
Elvire Popesco	...	Madame Rameau
Michel Simon	...	Picking
Betty Stockfeld	...	L'anglaise
Erich von Stroheim	...	Eric (as Eric von Stroheim)
Simone Berriau	...	Lydia
Missia	...	Joséphine Picking
Raymond Segard	...	Robert Bernier (as Segard)
Marcel Orluc	...	Gérard Bernier (as Orluc)
Jean Daurand	...	Le télégraphiste
Elmire Vautier	...	Marie, l'habilleuse de Lydia
Lina Darwils	...	Une locataire

Also Known As:

32 Rue de Montmartre (France) (reissue title)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Eurocord)

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Studios Eclair, Epinay-sur-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, France

Company:

Régina

Behind the façade/double entendre

The two meanings are displayed in the movies;everything happens behind the façade of an apartment building,and every tenant has got something to hide after the owner's murder.

What's definitely lacking is unity:it resembles Julien Duvivier's movies made up of sketches ,but without Pepe le Moko's director's genius.EVerything that made Duvivier one of the greatest names of the French cinema(strong screenplays,evil characters,film noir atmosphere) is desperately nowhere to be found here.Scene follows another ,without sustaining any dramatic progression,bringing almost all the big names of the era ,waiting for being in the front of the stage and eager to put on their usual act:Eric Von Stroheim,Michel Simon,Jules Berry,Elvire Popesco,Marguerite Moreno ,Gaby Morlay and many more do exactly what the audience is waiting for.The whodunit is devoid of interest -we do not care a little bit about the murderer's identity- and it's not offset by a solid psychological study à la Simenon because all the characters but the two cops -the human one and the hard one:for that matter,the movie was ahead of its time- hardly stay five minutes on the screen.

About Georges Lacombe ,the director:his best movie was "le dernier des six" ,which he made two years later with a big help from great director HG Clouzot who wrote the screenplay;Also worthy of investigation is "la lumière d'en face" which revealed one year before Vadim's mediocre "Et Dieu créa la femme" ,Brigitte Bardot's sensuality.