Dirty Hands (1951)
"Les mains sales" (original title)

A young intellectual, Hugo, joins the Communist Party out of a sense of idealism, only to see his principles manipulated by party leaders. He is given the assignment of killing Professor ... See full summary »

Directors:

Fernand Rivers, Simone Berriau

Writers:

Jacques-Laurent Bost, Fernand Rivers,

Stars:

Pierre Brasseur, Daniel Gélin, Claude Nollier

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pierre Brasseur	...	Höderer
Daniel Gélin	...	Hugo Barine
Claude Nollier	...	Olga
Jacques Castelot	...	Le prince
Monique Arthur	...	Jessica
Georges Chamarat	...	Banine
Marcel André	...	Karski
Roland Bailly	...	Slick
Eddy Rasimi	...	Georges
Robert Le Béal	...	Louis
Henri San Juan	...	Léon
Gérard Buhr	...	Presder
Christian Marquand	...	Dimitri
Emile Seylis	...	Le greffier (as Émile Seylis)
Alfred Goulin	...	Laurent

Storyline

A young intellectual, Hugo, joins the Communist Party out of a sense of idealism, only to see his principles manipulated by party leaders. He is given the assignment of killing Professor Hoederer, a party deviationist. However, he grows to admire the man and begins to have doubts about morals and revolutionary politics. But jealousy - Hugo thinks Hoederer has made love to his wife, Jessica - takes matters out of the political realm.

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Plot Keywords:

politics | professor | jealousy | assignment | communist | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

2 May 1954 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dirty Hands

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films Fernand Rivers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Schmutzige Hände (1968)

User Reviews

A movie that shows that Sartre deserved his Nobel Prize.

I saw this movie several years so my memory of it is a bit vague, but I remember being quite pleasantly surprised. I had figured that any movie written by Jean Paul Sartre would be about mildly depressed people sitting around making `existential' comments, but that's not the case in the three movies that I've seen by him (this one, The Chips Are Down, and The Proud Ones). His movies are fast-paced and, unlike modern American movies, unpredictable.

Dirty Hands is about a man who is part of a movement, clearly based on communism, who is recruited by his leaders to assassinate his former professor. He is conflicted about whether he should or not, since he has great respect and love for the man and yet is loyal to the cause.

I don't know that much about Sartre, but I do know that he was involved with the communists during and after World War II. I was struck by how anticommunist this movie is, not in a Joe McCarthy sense but in the way that former communists, such as Arthur Koestler and Wilhelm Reich, became disgusted with the tactics of the movement.