Suzanne Flon Movies

Thomas (Jacques Charrier) is a sailor who has deserted from the Navy in this gentle French drama. He has found refuge in a seaside bordello. Romantic difficulties blossom as he and Flora (Catherine Rouvert), one of the house's prostitutes, fall in love with each other. When he hurts her, however, the denizens of the house agree that he must leave ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this story of the perfect crime that goes wrong, Jeff (Georges Rouquier) is the mastermind who has planned a successful robbery. When he fails to show up for the job, his girlfriend and his young protégé Laurent (Alain Delon) are put under guard to wait for the boss to arrive. Laurent manages to overpower the guard and escapes with Jeff's girl. An exciting chase scene through a zoo ends in a gunfight and one of the thugs being stung to death by a bevy of bees. In the final dénouement, Jeff and Laurent face each other down in a battle for all the money. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Albert (Hardy Kruger) is a Franciscan monk and a medical orderly at a monastery in France. Although he is German, the kindly monk helps hide French resistance members and gives medical treatment to anyone who needs it. Albert helps two Frenchmen who escape from a Nazi prison, and he tries to maintain the delicate balance between the warring factions by helping out the afflicted and not getting involved in political ideology. This film, based on a true story from the novel by Marc Toledano, was released nearly 23 years after the end of World War II. Some students of history allege that the French resistance was a much more insignificant affair than is shown in post-war films and express great bitterness about all Franco-German collaboration during the war. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Originally titled Le Soleil des Voyous, Action Man teams two veteran international film stars: France's Jean Gabin and America's Robert Stack. Gabin plays an ex-criminal, now reformed and ensconsed in a respectable executive job. Stack plays an unreconstituted crook who wants to inveigle Gabin into one last caper. The crime goes off like clockwork, but drug dealers who want a piece of the action kidnap Gabin's wife Suzanne Flon and hold her for ransom. Stack ends up sacrificing his own life to save those of Gabin and Flon. Based on a novel by J. M. Flynn Action Man is the sort of bread-and-butter fare that director Jean Delannoy, famed for his earlier spiritual classics La Symphonie Pastorale (1946), Le Jeux Sons Faits (1947) and Diary of a Country Priest (1950), dealt with in his twilight years. In certain gamier markets, Action Man was released as Leather and Nylon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Frankenheimer directs Burt Lancaster in the tense spy thriller The Train. Lancaster plays Labiche, a French railway inspector. Allied forces are threatening to liberate Paris, so Col. Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) is ordered to move the priceless works of art from the Jeu de Paume Museum to the fatherland. The head of the museum (Suzanne Flon) attempts to convince Labiche that he should sabotage the train on which they are transporting the art. Labiche is more focused on destroying a trainload of German weapons. After his friend is killed trying to stop the train with the art, and after a consciousness-raising conversation with a hotel owner (Jeanne Moreau), Labiche resolves to save the antiquities. Lancaster and Frankenheimer had worked together previously on both Birdman of Alcatraz and Seven Days in May. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Nutty, Naughty Chateau is summed up in the encyclopedic book The United Artists Story as "Sex comedy drama." No more, no less. Actually, there is more: The film was originally titled Chateau en Suede, and it was directed by Roger Vadim. Based on a Francoise Sagan play, the film involves a group of eccentric jet-setters who gambole around a huge French chateau dressed in 1750s costumes. A young man on the run takes refuge in this curious household, and is gradually sucked into the soft-core sensual practices of its offbeat denizens. With Vadim as director, and a cast chock-full of such notables as Monica Vitti and Curt Jurgens, Nutty, Naughty Chateau deserves more attention than a three-word synopsis would suggest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Much of Orson Welles' latter-day reputation as an "unfathomable" genius rests upon his seeming unwillingness to tell a story in clear, precise fashion. Sometimes, as in such films as Touch of Evil, Welles' spotty storytelling skills can be forgiven in the light of the excellent visuals. In other cases, as in his 1962 adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, Welles'style comes across as empty virtuosity, precious and petulant when it should be profound. Anthony Perkins plays Joseph K, a man condemned for an unnamed crime in an unnamed country. Seeking justice, Joseph K is sucked into a labyrinth of bureaucracy (Welles once described the character as being a "little bureaucrat" himself, who deserves to be punished. This is never clearly expressed in the finished film). Along the way, he becomes involved with three women -- Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Elsa Martinelli -- who in their own individual ways are functions of the System that persecutes him.

While Welles considered The Trial one of his finest films, this enthusiasm is not universally shared; even his most fervent admirers have been known to emerge from a screening of the film with quizzical, disappointed expressions on their faces. On the plus side, Welles and his cinematographer Edmond Richard perform miracles in transforming an abandoned French railway station into the headquarters of a totalitarian, red tape-ridden society. It's also fun to hear Welles' voice emanating from several of the supporting characters (his post-dubbing budget was nil). All in all, however, The Trial never truly works; it is unfair, however, to lay the blame for this entirely on Welles, inasmuch as the 1948 and 1994 attempts to cinematize the original Kafka novel likewise came a cropper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Latent forces for a strong individualism are pitted against the need to honor deeply held commitments in this effective comedy by Henri Verneuil. Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo star as Albert and Gabriel, respectively. Albert is an inn owner who vowed never to drink again if he and his wife survived the war. They did, and the reformed alcoholic keeps his vow. But times have changed and soon after the war, Albert comes in contact with Gabriel, a young man prone to heavy bouts with the bottle. Gabriel is conflicted over visiting his young daughter in a nearby school and in a moment of nostalgia, Albert takes off with him on one major binge -- and havoc results. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Also known as Mr. Arkadin, this flawed late effort by director Orson Welles recalls the structure of Citizen Kane, centering around an investigation into the past of a powerful millionaire. This time around, however, the millionaire is very much alive; in fact, it is Gregory Arkadin (Welles) himself who orders the inquiry, claiming to suffer from amnesia. The investigator soon gets a taste of the difficulty of his task, however, when several witnesses to Arkadin's past suspiciously turn up dead. Indeed, the closer he comes to the truth about Arkadin, the more he fears that he himself may be the next victim. While it aspires to intense suspense, Confidential Report suffers more than most of Welles' films from budgetary limitations and erratic shooting habits, with the final result often seeming choppy and needlessly confusing. Nevertheless, any Welles effort is by definition at least partially worthwhile, if only for further demonstration of his brilliant visual sensibility. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide