Les bonnes causes

French critics compare "les bonnes causes" to "winess for the prosecution" and of course they say it cannot hold a candle to it.They are wrong.Not that it might be better than Wilder's work,but it's downright different.Henri Jeanson's lines have not lost their bite ,particularly when he thrashes the légion d'honneur -it was not the first time- this award it's such a honor to get .

The main difference between Wilder's "witness" and Christian-Jaque 's "les bonnes causes lies in the fact that in the former,Wilder (and A.Christie,the writer) saved the biggest twist for the end whereas in the latter we know from the start (or almost) who the villains are(Pierre Brasseur at his most cynical,Marina Vlady at her bitchiest).Virna Lisi portrays a nurse,unfairly accused of murdering Vlady's husband.Bourvil ,in one of his rare dramatic parts is the good loyal judge and Umberto Orsini the dedicated lawyer.It seems that in his last worthwhile (and sadly) overlooked works (this film and "le repas des fauves" ) Christian-Jaque regained his bite and his pessimism which he had displayed before in "Boule de Suif" and "un revenant" ."Les bonnes causes" ,which displays black humor too could also be a spoof on André Cayatte's causes célèbres.