Jean Temerson Movies
The greatest film that Alfred Hitchcock never made, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Diabolique is set in a provincial boarding school run by headmaster Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse). A ruthless lothario, he becomes the target of a murder plot concocted by his long-suffering invalid wife Christina (Vera Clouzot, the director's own spouse) and his latest mistress, an icy teacher played by Simone Signoret. A dark, dank thriller with a much-imitated "shock" ending, Diabolique is a masterpiece of Grand Guignol suspense. The simple murder plot goes haywire, and Michel's corpse disappears, prompting strange rumors of his reappearance which grow more and more substantial as the film careens wildly towards its breathless conclusion. Later remade as a greatly inferior 1996 Hollywood feature with Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, (more)
- 1954
In this romance, a jilted lawyer joins the French Foreign Legion to help him forget his faithless love. While in the desert he espies a village beauty who is the exact double of his true-love. It turns out that she is an amnesiac. With her, the attorney tries to re-spark his old relationship. Trouble ensues when his real ex-love shows up and makes her look-a-like hit the road. The lawyer ends up going back to the Legion to escape it all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gina Lollobrigida, Jean Pascal, (more)
- 1940
Though he died in 1943 at the hands of his Gestapo persecutors, the great French stage and screen actor Harry Baur was represented onscreen in 1947 by the first American release of his 1940 vehicle Volpone. Adapted from the Ben Jonson play of the same name, the story concerns a cynical, unscrupulous merchant named Volpone (Baur)-aka "the fox" -- who intends to get even with his enemies by pretending to be dead and watching them fight amongst themselves for his estate. He appoints his servant Mosca (Louis Jouvet), outwardly as dishonest as Volpone, as the executor of his will, then sits back to enjoy the fireworks. Volpone's plan inevitably backfires, setting the stage for an ironic denoument. Director Maurice Tourneur completed Volpone in 1939, but political upheavals in wartime France delayed its original release by a full year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Jouvet, Harry Baur, (more)
- 1939
In one of his last European film appearances, Conrad Veidt heads the cast of Le Joueur D'Echecs (The Checker Player). Set during the reign of Russia's Catherine the Great, the film recreates Poland's ongoing efforts to wrest free of Russian tyranny. Paul Cambo plays Polish patriot Bosleslas Vorosky, whose insurrection is aided by an eccentric Hungarian nobleman, Baron Kempelen (Conrad Veidt). Seemingly more interested in his various mechanical devices (including an automated checker player) than with human beings, Kempelen nonetheless proves to be the best friend the Poles could have, even sacrificing his own life for their cause. In the film's bizarre but historically accurate conclusion, the spiteful Catherine demands that Kempelen's beloved mechanical checker player be executed by firing squad (It makes sense within context--honest!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Rosay, Micheline Francey, (more)
- 1939
Filmed during the war, this little-known Fernandel vehicle finally attained an American release in 1951. The star plays Lavarede, an obnoxious braggart and spendthrift who falls heir to his uncle's fortune. But there's a condition to the will: in order to claim his uncle's millions, Lavarede must first spend three months travelling around the world with but five sous to his name. Reportedly, the film ran into censorship problems with the provisional German government. Whatever the case, existing prints of Les Cinq Sous de Lavarde are obviously incomplete, with co-star Josette Day's role sliced into near-nonexistence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josette Day, Fernandel, (more)
- 1939
In this dark drama, the mysterious disappearance of several Parisian women cause the police to hire the roommate of the latest victim to go undercover, looking into strange newspaper ads seeking young single women, and meet all that placed the ads. She does so, but all of them are innocent. Then she meets a cabaret singer looking for a maid. He is so charming, that she soon falls in love and they plan to marry. Unfortunately, on the eve of their wedding, the man is arrested for the murders. He pleads innocence, but there is too much evidence to the contrary and his is given the death penalty. Meanwhile his lover remains determined to prove him innocent and capture the real killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Chevalier, Erich Von Stroheim, (more)
Pepe le Moko (Jean Gabin) is a well-known criminal mastermind who eludes the French police by hiding in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows he is safe in this labyrinthine netherworld, where he is surrounded by his fellow thieves and cutthroats. Police inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux), who has developed a grudging respect for Pepe, bides his time, waiting for Pepe to try to leave the Casbah. When Gaby Gould (Mirielle Balin), a Parisian tourist, falls in love with Pepe, the inspector hopes to use this relationship to his advantage. He tells Gaby that Pepe has been killed, knowing that the heartbroken girl will return to Paris -- and that Pepe will risk everything to go after her. The French Pepe le Moko was remade in the US as Algiers, which followed the original so slavishly (except for changing its ending) that the American producers were able to utilize generous amounts of stock footage from the French film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, (more)
