This is a good (but,sorry ,not really great) film noir at a time when the genre was thriving in France ;the past masters were Clouzot,Duvivier ,Yves Allégret,Henry Decoin....
Another group of lesser talents (but sometimes unfairly ignored or dismissed )includes Gilles Grangier,Robert Hossein,Luis Saslavsky.... Raymond Bailly could have easily become part of the club ,had he continued in that vein (he made only three movies ,only the first one is a thriller).
Completely forgotten in its native France ,it nonetheless boasts two comments,which is amazing for a black and white oldie.
The screenplay resembles that of "Interdit De Séjour" (Maurice De Canonge,1954);both heroes are young men (Claude Leydu in "Interdit",Philippe Lemaire in " Steve" )down on their luck (Leydu wants to work but he's forced to become a fink and to rub shoulders with gangsters;Lemaire is seduced by a femme fatale (ideally played by Jeanne Moreau) and blackmailed.
Actually this little bank clerk who's always late ("pretty soon ,you'll say "good evening" to me when you arrive",says the bad-tempered boss)could go on in his own sweet way and marry his nice fiancée :but his evil genius (Mr Steve ,played by Armand Mestral,never overtly threatening ,but always disturbing),his henchman (Lino Ventura ,who would often play the villains in the fifties ,before becoming a good guy in the next decades),and his sexy mistress whose role remains ambiguous are greedy and suggest he leave this measly job and he taste a life of luxury .
The screenplay has three distinct parts: the clerk's bank hold-up ,racecourse racket and casino (Forge-Les-Eaux)stickup.But the young guy has scruples ...the story lacks unity ,and has not the dramatic progression of "Interdit De Séjour".
The last sequence reveals us that the first picture in in fact the end of the movie ,making the events a flashback ,a rather cunning trick. A recurrent feature of the Realisme Poetique : the longing to sail away with the woman you love ,the harbor as a dead end (see "Quai Des Brumes" "Pepe Le Moko" and countless others).
When he kills Steve ,Georges kills his "Mr Hyde" side .He may seem naive,self-conscious ,and under Florence's spell ,he 's in fact tormented ,and the clean-cut well meaning boy lies dormant in himself.
This is not a forgotten masterpiece ,but an interesting thriller which does not deserve to be neglected .
Another group of lesser talents (but sometimes unfairly ignored or dismissed )includes Gilles Grangier,Robert Hossein,Luis Saslavsky.... Raymond Bailly could have easily become part of the club ,had he continued in that vein (he made only three movies ,only the first one is a thriller).
Completely forgotten in its native France ,it nonetheless boasts two comments,which is amazing for a black and white oldie.
The screenplay resembles that of "Interdit De Séjour" (Maurice De Canonge,1954);both heroes are young men (Claude Leydu in "Interdit",Philippe Lemaire in " Steve" )down on their luck (Leydu wants to work but he's forced to become a fink and to rub shoulders with gangsters;Lemaire is seduced by a femme fatale (ideally played by Jeanne Moreau) and blackmailed.
Actually this little bank clerk who's always late ("pretty soon ,you'll say "good evening" to me when you arrive",says the bad-tempered boss)could go on in his own sweet way and marry his nice fiancée :but his evil genius (Mr Steve ,played by Armand Mestral,never overtly threatening ,but always disturbing),his henchman (Lino Ventura ,who would often play the villains in the fifties ,before becoming a good guy in the next decades),and his sexy mistress whose role remains ambiguous are greedy and suggest he leave this measly job and he taste a life of luxury .
The screenplay has three distinct parts: the clerk's bank hold-up ,racecourse racket and casino (Forge-Les-Eaux)stickup.But the young guy has scruples ...the story lacks unity ,and has not the dramatic progression of "Interdit De Séjour".
The last sequence reveals us that the first picture in in fact the end of the movie ,making the events a flashback ,a rather cunning trick. A recurrent feature of the Realisme Poetique : the longing to sail away with the woman you love ,the harbor as a dead end (see "Quai Des Brumes" "Pepe Le Moko" and countless others).
When he kills Steve ,Georges kills his "Mr Hyde" side .He may seem naive,self-conscious ,and under Florence's spell ,he 's in fact tormented ,and the clean-cut well meaning boy lies dormant in himself.
This is not a forgotten masterpiece ,but an interesting thriller which does not deserve to be neglected .