Carne and Prevert on a roll; hot on the heels of 'Quai des Brumes' comes this, next up will be Les Visiteurs du Soir' and THAT will be followed by 'Les Enfants du Paradis'. Get out of that, John Ford/Dudley Nichols. Where do you start with something like this, someone send a Runner for a new set of superlatives. Start with the heavy? Jules Berry, they don't come any oilier, he'd already scored in a previous Prevert script, 'Le Crime du Monsieur Lange' with Renoir on bullhorn and he used this as a warm-up for his Satan in 'Visiteurs'. Arletty? Garance-in-Waiting, 'Hotel du Nord' behind her, 'Visiteurs/Enfants' to follow. Gabin? What can I say. Even Nat Cole didn't have a trio like this. To quote the title of an earlier (1935) Gabin vehicle this was truly La Belle Equipe. How Hollywood could cast Hank Fonda in the Gabin role is beyond me. Hank, 'aw shucks' Fonda, niceness personified as decent but RUGGED Gabin? Come on, already. Vincent Price plays Jules Berry? Get real! Sandy Trauner's brilliant apartment building sets the tone here from frame #1. What an opening, Jules Berry exiting Gabin's room and running out of breath. Crowd assembling. Nowhere-To-Go Gabin holed up in his 10 by 6 reminiscing in Gitane time. Never had a chance, life's a bitch and then you die. Basically that's all there is to it. But, as someone once said, it's the way you tell them. Brilliant in spades.
