Jean-Jacques Delbo Movies
- 1971
This hard-boiled French crime thriller begins with the bold murder of a well-heeled Frenchman. The detective assigned to the case is most puzzled for there seems to be no motive. Then a old man and an astrologer are killed in exactly the same way, leaving the detective to figure out how the three disparate victims are linked. All he has to go on is a mysterious diary given to him by the step daughter of the first victim. The diary belonged to him and contains a list of the man's lovers. One of those women was once the lover of the detective and he calls upon her. She, not knowing that he is on a case, hopes that he will renew their love. During their tryst, he learns that she knows all three of the victims, but before he can call her on it, she too is gunned down. Eventually it is the lover of the step-daughter who leads the detective to the mystery's surprising, shocking conclusion. Despite the film's noir-ish content, director Philippe Labro chose to film it in gay, sunny Nice, a technique that actually enhances the grimness of the suspenseful story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Dominique Sanda, (more)
- 1971
French comic Louis De Funes stars as Henri, who has a very unfortunate accident while on his way to arrange some sort of shady deal on the Italian border. He has tried desperately not to let his better impulses get control of him; nonetheless, he has already picked up a hitchhiker (Olivier De Funes) and a married woman in distress (Geraldine Chaplin) when his car runs off the road, falls over a cliff, and lands in the crown of a tree. The efforts of this threesome to cope with the situation and get rescued constitute the body of this film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Chaplin
- 1967
The third film from director Nicolas Gessner, this espionage drama is a filmed adaptation of the novel You Have Yourself a Deal by James Hadley Chase. Mireille Darc stars as Christine, a mysterious blonde suffering from amnesia who becomes the focus of international attention as rival spies compete to discover her identity. Christine carries with her a giant, priceless pearl and could be the lover of a Chinese nuclear scientist and know many important secrets. To learn those secrets, CIA man Douglas (Edward G. Robinson) hires Gandler (Claudio Brook), an out-of-work actor, to pretend he is her husband and attempt to uncover the truth. But along the way, Gandler can't help but fall in love with her, throwing an unexpected wrench in the gears. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mireille Darc, Claudio Brook, (more)
- 1963
In this French crime drama, two safe-crackers are breaking into a safe when they are caught in the act by a guard. One of the crooks kills the guard and flees leaving his partner behind. The abandoned accomplice is captured and convicted. One year passes before the convict is able to escape from prison and set out to exact his revenge. As he flees, he becomes friends with a gas station owner married to a gold-digging ex-hooker. When the wife learns that the hero is a fugitive she blackmails him into cracking her husband's safe. Unfortunately, they are captured by the owner who is killed in the ensuing scuffle by his wife. The fugitive hero then buries the body. He refuses to open the safe. As fate would have it, the fugitive's ex-partner happens upon the scene, but he too will not open the save. A short time later, the wife leaves. The partners then attempt to open it, but are surprised when the murderous wife returns with a shotgun. The fugitive's partner kills the girl, but as he tries to flee the police, his car careens into the gas pumps and explodes in a tremendous ball of fire. Fortunately, the hero escapes at the very last second. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hossein, Catherine Rouvel, (more)
- 1963
In a theme which seems to have been popular at this time in Italian cinema (as in La Parmigiana, for instance), country-born-and-bred woman Daniela (Daniela Rocca) comes to the big city to look for a wealthy man. Her dream is to one day live in a penthouse, that ultimate urban symbol of having "arrived" financially. Putting her ideal before all else, even her moral standards, she goes from bad to worse as she tries to realize her dream. This otherwise routine drama is interspersed with a few comic moments and sharp observations. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniela Rocca, Tomas Milian, (more)
- 1961
The story of a Frenchman who fought to liberate the American colonies from British rule is colorfully brought to the screen. Lafayette (Michel Leroyer) is an engaging young landowner who spends his time in taverns drinking and talking politics. When he ends up on the wrong side of the minister's police, he sells his land, buys a ship, and takes off to help the Americans fight the British. He meets up with General Washington (Howard St. John) and earns his rightful place in history as one of the great military leaders. British General Cornwallis is portrayed by Jack Hawkins, while Orson Welles gives a memorable performance as Benjamin Franklin. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel LeRoyer, Howard St. John, (more)
- 1961
This modest, unpretentious French film is a streamlined version of the true story previously cinematized as The Song of Bernadette (1943) Daniele Ajort plays the simple 19th-century French peasant girl who insists that she has experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary. Once this sighting becomes common knowledge, Bernadette's very existence becomes a religious and political hot potato. Thousands of people flock to the grotto at Lourdes where Bernadette claims she has seen the Holy Mother, believing that the waters therein contain recuperative powers. Bernadette dies under a cloud of controversy, but is ultimately elevated to sainthood by the Vatican. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Italian director Mario Bava took a brief hiatus from horror films to make this fairly interesting Viking-themed adventure. Iron (Cameron Mitchell) is a Viking leader whose long-lost brother Erik (Giorgio Ardisson) was raised by Queen Alice of England. Alice's counselor, Gunnar (Andrea Checchi) betrays her and helps the Vikings take over, while the shipwrecked Erik is nursed back to health by Rama (Alice Kessleri), the twin sister of Iron's wife Daja (Ellen Kessleri). Naturally, Erik returns home and must fight Iron and defeat Gunnar in order to save the country. It doesn't quite work out that way, however, as the ruthless counselor kills Iron, leading the Vikings and British to join forces with Erik and take Gunnar down. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cameron Mitchell, Andrea Checchi, (more)
- 1961
Claude Autant-Lara's 1961 Count of Monte Cristo is one of the most faithful screen versions of the evergreen Alexandre Dumas story -- and one of the most compelling, thanks to the director's ability to squeeze the last drop of romanticism out of the original. While Louis Jourdan seems ill at ease as the younger Edmond Dantes, he is ideally suited for the film's later scenes, when the older, sadder, and wiser Dantes begins exacting revenge upon those who had him condemned to prison. Honoring the spirit of the original, Autant-Lara avoids inserting the leftist proselytizing which weighed down many of his later films. To perk up the pace and ensure double-bill bookings, the American distributor of Count of Monte Cristo removed 90 minutes from the film's 3-hour length. This was the seventh movie adaptation of the Dumas classic, which was first filmed by Hobart Bosworth in 1912. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Jourdan, Yvonne Furneaux, (more)
Back in Germany for the first time since 1933, director Fritz Lang returned to the screen character that brought him enormous success in his pre-Hollywood years. The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse is not so much a sequel as an extension of Lang's early Dr. Mabuse (1922) and Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Set in 1960, the film begins with a series of unsolved murders in a Berlin hotel. The modus operandi of the murderer is the same as that of long-dead megalomaniac Dr. Mabuse. Police detective Gert Frobe and amateur sleuths Peter Van Eyck and Dawn Addams suspect that the killer is a man who believes that he is the reincarnation of Mabuse. Could the culprit be secretive insurance salesman Werner Peters, or blind seer Wolfgang Preiss? The title refers to the hotel's sophisticated TV surveillance system--dozens of roving cameras and TV monitors, inspired (claimed Lang) by a sophisticated bugging method used by the Nazis during World War II. The renewed popularity of the Dr. Mabuse character spawned five movie sequels, none of which were directed by Lang, who had washed his hands of the project. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gert Fröbe
- 1959
- NR
French comedian Fernandel stars in this entertaining comedy based on a short story by O. Henry, The Ransom of Red Chief. Antoine (Fernandel) has the brilliant idea of kidnapping the son of a millionaire in order to raise the money he and his partner Paolo (Gino Cervi) need to buy their own auto repair shop. The kidnapping is quite successful but Antoine and Paolo soon discover that little Erick (Papouf) is more than just a handful. Even when Antoine dresses up as a Native American, Erick is not amused for long. The little boy is trouble incarnate, and soon the erstwhile kidnappers are ready to pay for his parents to take him back. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Gino Cervi, (more)
A scientific experiment gone leaves the fate of the world hanging in the balance in this sci-fi thriller. The United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain join forces to launch a manned space mission, but things go terribly wrong and crew leader John MacLaren (Paul Hubschmid) is forced to abandon ship shortly after blast off. MacLaren safely returns to Earth, but the rocket continues to sail through space, eventually reaching the sun and causing it to break apart. The consequences are immediate and disastrous -- asteroids pummel the planet, Earthquakes and extreme weather conditions tear at the world's major cities, and the world's scientific community bands together in a last-ditch effort to stop the disaster before it's too late. Le Danger Vient de l'Escape (released in the United States as The Day The Sky Exploded features top-notch cinematography from European horror legend Mario Bava. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1955
Chiens Perdus sans Collier (Lost Dogs without Collars) is a small-scale venture from director Jean Delannoy, who at the time was more closely associated with more elaborate efforts. Like many American films of the period, Delannoy's picture deals with the ever-growing problem of juvenile delinquency (the film's title is symbolic). Jean Gabin plays a white-haired judge who feels that the basic cause of teenaged crime is lack of parental love and supervision. His thesis would seem to be borne out by the cases of three young "lost dogs," whose desperate desire to "belong" ends in tragedy. As was his custom in the mid-1950s, Jean Delannoy handles his material with slickness but not much depth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Anne Doat, (more)
- 1954
Sacha Guitry's Si Versailles M'Etait Conte (If Versailles Were Told to Me) is best known by its American title Royal Affairs in Versailles. In addtion to writing and directed the film, Guitry reserves for himself the plum role of Louis XIV. Concentrating on the palace of Versailles over a period of 300 years, the storyline concentrates on the various amorous and political intrigues of three French kings. The plot manages to wend its way through the French revolution, coming to a halt in "the present". The star-studded supporting cast includes Jean Marais as Louis XV, Claudette Colbert as Mme. Montespan, Micheline Presle as Mme. Pompadour, and, best of all, Orson Welles as a gouty Ben Franklin. Most currently available prints of Si Versailles M'Etait Conte are severely edited, and fail to do justice to the rich Eastmancolor hues of the original version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sacha Guitry, Michel Auclair, (more)
- 1952
Minuit... Quai De Bercy gets off to a violent start when a gorgeous concierge (Lysiane Rey) is knifed to death. Since the girl made an enemy of everyone she ever met, there's no shortage of suspects. Police inspector Kieffer (Erich von Stroheim), who despite his surly demeanor is the soul of compassion, tries to ferret out enough clues to identify the guilty party. He is "helped" by amateur female detective Irene (Madeleine Robinson), who's not as scatterbrained as she seems. When asked why he spoke his lines in French films slower than his dialogue in English-speaking films, Erich von Stroheim replied "It keeps me on the screen longer." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Robinson, Francis Blanche, (more)
- 1948
This French comedy offers a tour-de-force for Jouvet who plays most of the major characters. His main role is that of a super con-artist whose newest con involves selling museums to naive clients. He is assisted by many shady look-a-likes. Trouble ensues when one of his assistants is arrested and charged with the crimes of the gang leader. The other doubles must now work together to confuse the police and free their compatriot. The arrested one wins it all in the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Jouvet, Suzy Delair, (more)
- 1946
Erich Von Stroheim is the principal attraction of the French melodrama On Ne Meurt pas Comme Ca. Von Stroheim is ideally cast as a tyrannical movie director, currently filming a murder mystery. While shooting a scene in which a character is poisoned, Von Stroheim complains that the actor's performance isn't realistic enough. Alas, his remonstrations fall upon deaf ears: the actor has really been poisoned! The rest of the film is a whodunit, with the "who" obvious to veteran filmgoers. The title translates as One Does Not Die That Way, which in context is grimly amusing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denise Vernac, Erich Von Stroheim, (more)
