"Strange Mister Steve" is a good surprise in French film noir, far from perfect, but with fascinating itinerary of Georges Villard (Philippe Lemaire) from innocent employee to independant crook written by Frédéric Dard. I appreciated Armand Mestral playing Steve, the dandy crook capturing Villard in his trap with the help of tender Jeanne Moreau and Lino Ventura being at the opposite threatening (he was also violent in "Action immédiate" and "Sursis pour un vivant"). In the hands of Julien Duvivier, Henri Decoin, Clouzot, Jean Delannnoy,... it could have been better with more precise details. But it's still entertaining.
5 Reviews
Strange movie...
shatguintruo21 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Armand Mestral is perfect in the role of the cynical but realistic, Stève. For Stève life comes down just to make money, no matter what the ways he uses. Of course they are illegal and rely on intelligence. According to Florence (Jeanne Moreau) his crime companion, he was very poor in childhood and had almost nothing to eat. This would justify his actions. Stève meets Georges Villard (Philippe Lamaire) in a bar where the banker always listens to the same song and always plays in the same game machine to try to win a fictitious hefty franc. Stève realizes that Georges is satisfied with his life as a banker, with his girlfriend and co-worker Meirelle (Anouk Ferjac), but who lives dreaming of the fictional money, since he lives in a small apartment and always is late with the rent, in addition to Always listen to the director's admonitions for his constant delays. Little by little it falls in the seductive webs of Florence / Stève as she becomes part of the squad of Stéve. The film directed by Raymond Bailly has nuances of comedy and drama with some moderate suspense. The photograph by Jacques Lemare (black and white) highlights a Paris of 1957 which for nostalgics like myself is simply marvelous (American and French cars, parade like taxis, police cars and private individuals). The Final - which I refrain from reporting, not to spoil the surprise is very good. On a scale of 1 to 10, my vote is seven (very good).
Three-act tragedy
dbdumonteil24 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
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 .
Poor Jeanne Moreau
jromanbaker25 February 2021
Jeanne Moreau had to wait a while for the films we remember her by. This turgid film, dully directed concerns a green as grass young man who is ( platonically ) seduced by a certain Monsieur Steve, and laughingly it looks at first like a gay pickup, with restaurant dates etc. But green as grass is not wanted for his handsome looks but his gift of being essentially stupid. Philippe Lemaire plays the role as if on Valium and Jeanne Moreau, Monsieur Steve's wife has the dreary job of sexually arousing him. I kid you not but with this cliched material she shows the promise of things to come in her career. She could make a telephone book of the time interesting, and hey presto she reads it from A to Z in this scenario. The music is dreadful and the 1957 depiction of Paris is banal to say the least. Of course there is a bank robbery and green as grass is shot by the men who set him up. Not fatally, but enough to have 2 operations. Not learning his lesson that he is being used he gets involved in another heist, and well, the ending pretends to be Film Noir, and the lesson of it all is that stupid young men should not accept expensive restaurant dates with dubious older men. There is a price to pay but poor green as grass does not see his fate coming. I did a mile off, and a 2 for Jeanne Moreau who to her credit looks as if she is seeing Louis Malle and his ' Lift to the Scaffold ' in the distance.
"By handling all that money you've forgotten its value."
morrison-dylan-fan17 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
After being mesmerised by The She-Wolves,I took a look at the credits of Jeanne Moreau's 3 other 1957 films. Finding his collaborations with auteur co- writer/director, and most often the star, Robert Hossein to be magnificent, I was excited to see Frédéric Dard team-up with Moreau, (for this non-Hossein title) which led to me meeting Monsieur Steve.
View on the film:
Looking incredibly uncomfortable in his own skin, Philippe Lemaire gives a pitch-perfect performance as meek Villard,a Film Noir loner with such a weak spine he folds in from the merest shake of Steve's fists,and a lone kiss from Florence. Backed by Lino Ventura's blunt "heavy" Denis, Armand Mestral is gives a wicked, dastardly performance as Steve, who Mestral has strong-arm Villard into following all his orders with strong-arm charms. Tangling Villard up with Steve,Jeanne Moreau gives a seductive twist as Femme Fatale Florence, via Moreau making each chance she gives Villard to get closer,being an underhanded way to trap him in Florence's web.
For their adaptation of Marcel Prêtre's novel, writers Raymond Bailly and Frédéric Dard criss-cross genres in a transfixing style, as Florence and Villard's first encounter has the spark of a light comedy, which bubbles up to a break-neck heist that Villard is placed at the centre of the planning, until it fizzes out into Villard's tense attempt to change his Steve and Florence cards. Gripping onto a theme cast across Dard's Noir's, the writers sharply play the ambiguity in Florence's "romance" with Villard, that turns from an initial burst of passion to a simmering sinister atmosphere. Casting Philippe-Gérard's silk Jazz score over the film, Bailly & cinematographer Jacques "The Rules of the Game" Lemare subtly squeeze Villard into the corner of the screen, and drill the Film Noir tension with a thrilling heist set-piece, where Villard has to follow the orders of Monsieur Steve.
View on the film:
Looking incredibly uncomfortable in his own skin, Philippe Lemaire gives a pitch-perfect performance as meek Villard,a Film Noir loner with such a weak spine he folds in from the merest shake of Steve's fists,and a lone kiss from Florence. Backed by Lino Ventura's blunt "heavy" Denis, Armand Mestral is gives a wicked, dastardly performance as Steve, who Mestral has strong-arm Villard into following all his orders with strong-arm charms. Tangling Villard up with Steve,Jeanne Moreau gives a seductive twist as Femme Fatale Florence, via Moreau making each chance she gives Villard to get closer,being an underhanded way to trap him in Florence's web.
For their adaptation of Marcel Prêtre's novel, writers Raymond Bailly and Frédéric Dard criss-cross genres in a transfixing style, as Florence and Villard's first encounter has the spark of a light comedy, which bubbles up to a break-neck heist that Villard is placed at the centre of the planning, until it fizzes out into Villard's tense attempt to change his Steve and Florence cards. Gripping onto a theme cast across Dard's Noir's, the writers sharply play the ambiguity in Florence's "romance" with Villard, that turns from an initial burst of passion to a simmering sinister atmosphere. Casting Philippe-Gérard's silk Jazz score over the film, Bailly & cinematographer Jacques "The Rules of the Game" Lemare subtly squeeze Villard into the corner of the screen, and drill the Film Noir tension with a thrilling heist set-piece, where Villard has to follow the orders of Monsieur Steve.
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