Yves Montand Movies

Marcel Carne's 1946 production La Porte de la Nuit was released in the U.S. four years later as Gates of the Night. Scripted by Carne's longtime collaborator Jacques Prevert, the film is set in Paris just after its liberation from the Nazis. The script points out that this was not only a time for rejoicing, but a period of guilt and remorse, especially for those who cooperated with the Nazis, overtly or otherwise. In one of his first starring roles, Yves Montand plays a former member of the French underground who carries on a furtive romance with the wife (Nathalie Nattier) of a wealthy man. Others essential to the action are Sergi Reggiani as a snivelly informer and Christian Simon as a ubiquitous (and obviously symbolic) street musician. A box-office disappointment in France, Gates of the Night did somewhat better abroad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Autant-Lara's L'Auberge Rouge (The Red Inn) is black comedy at its very blackest. The scene is a rustic little inn in a remote rural area of France. The inn's proprietors Pierre (Carette) and Marie (Francoise Rosay) industriously support themselves by murdering the various stagecoach passengers who stop over at the inn, and then keep their valuables for themselves. As the story gets under way, a coach full of delightfully eccentric types pulls into the inn's courtyard, ripe for plucking. One of the passengers is a Monk (Fernandel), who learns of the innkeeper's homicidal schemes but is bound by the rules of the Confessional to reveal this information to no one. How can the monk secure the safety of his fellow passengers without betraying his vows? His solution--and the wickedly ironic coda that follows--will linger in the memory long after the final reel of L'Auberge Rouge tumbles over the spools. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Together with Diabolique, The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la Peur) earned Henri-Georges Clouzot the reputation as a "French Hitchcock." In truth, Clouzot's ability to sustain suspense may have even exceeded Hitchcock's; when originally released, Wages ran 155 tension-filled minutes. Based on the much-imitated novel by Georges Arnaud, the film is set in Central America. The Southern Oil Company, which pretty much rules the roost in the impoverished village of Las Piedras, sends out a call for long-distance truck drivers. Southern Oil's wages of 2,000 dollars per man are, literally, to die for -- the drivers are obliged to transport highly volatile nitroglycerine shipments across some of the most treacherous terrain on earth. Through expository dialogue, tense interactions and flashbacks, we become intimately acquainted with the four drivers who sign up for this death-defying mission: Corsican Yves Montand, Italian Folco Lulli, German Peter Van Eyck, and Frenchman Charles Vanel. The first half of the film slowly, methodically introduces the characters and their motivations. The second half -- the drive itself -- is a relentless, goosebump-inducing assault on the audience's senses. The winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival, The Wages of Fear was remade by William Friedkin as Sorcerer (1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Showing no signs of slowing down in his 70th year, Sacha Guitry served as director and writer of the lavish historical epic Napoleon, and also costarred as Talleyrand. It is now hard to assess the quality of the film, since most American prints are severely edited, and the color photography appallingly washed out. Reviewers in 1955 admired the effort that went into this $1,800,000 production, but complained that the viewer left the film with no deeper understanding of Napoleon Bonaparte than the viewer had had when coming in. Daniel Gelin poses impressively as the young Bonaparte, registering emotion only when things go wrong in his conquest of Europe, while Raymond Pellegrin is somewhat better as the older, more jaded Napoleon (the transition between the two actors is handled in a near-comic fashion). The Revolution is reduced to a few fleeting scenes, while the rest of the film is devoted to political infighting and betrayal. The huge supporting cast includes Michele Morgan as Josephine and Lana Marconi and Dany Robin, respectively, as Napoleon's mistresses Waleska and Desiree. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

American playwright Arthur Miller was still under an "unfriendly" cloud in 1958, so far as the anti-Communist brigades were concerned. Thus, the film version of Miller's stage play The Crucible was lensed in France. Drawing several parallels to the McCarthy era, Miller dramatizes the Salem Witch Trials of the late 17th century, when hearsay, rumor, and mass hysteria passed for hard evidence. Given an opportunity to escape being hanged for witchcraft, John Proctor (Yves Montand) refuses to bow to the demands of the so-called justices. Many observers felt that this climactic scene was an act of contrition for Arthur Miller, who was (by his reasoning) not nearly so courageous when grilled by the HUAC. Also known as The Witches of Salem, The Crucible was adapted for the screen by Jean-Paul Sartre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This standard documentary follows a 1956 tour by singer-actor Yves Montand through various cities in the USSR as he performs in theaters, sports stadiums, and other venues. Aside from clips of him on stage, there is Soviet newsreel footage of the French star's receptions and public appearances. Montand's wife Simone Signoret is also on-camera as she helps him out and has a few things to say herself. Their trip was a part of a mid-'50s Franco-Soviet cultural exchange. Editor (Leonide Azar) pieced together the various film clips into a cogent, 70-minute overview of the tour. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Yves Montand, who has so often portrayed an unflappable man of the world, is rendered virtually helpless by a small boy in Man to Man Talk. The plot (actually little more than an anecdote) has us believe that Montand is a suburban husband whose wife is expecting a baby. Montand's son must be told about those birds and bees before the baby arrives. Father and son go on a long walk in the countryside, where Montand's carefully prepared "facts of life" speech is constantly interrupted by passersby, by his son's tendency to wander, and by Montand's own reticence. Man to Man Talk ran for years on the American Late-Show circuit before the film was withdrawn and retitled as Premier May. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Let's Make Love is a breezy comedy about an off Broadway musical production. Jean-Marc Clement (Yves Montand) is the richest man in the world and looking for someone who loves him instead of his money. He reads in Variety he is to be satirized in the new production and tries out for the part. The producers hire him, unaware of his real identity. He hires Bing Crosby, Milton Berle and Gene Kelly to coach him for the role. Amanda (Marilyn Monroe) is the poor aspiring actress who lands a part in the play. Her opening number is the classic "My Heart Belongs To Daddy". Unaware of his fabulous wealth, she falls for the playboy billionaire during the rehearsals for the show. Tony Randall plays Montand's fussy public relations agent and tries to keep his boss from embarassment. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Based on the Francoise Sagan novel Aimez vous Brahms?, Goodbye Again stars Ingrid Bergman as Paula Tessier, a successful Parisian interior decorator (with a personal wardrobe by Christian Dior) and Yves Montand as her roving-eye lover, Roger Demarest. Worried that she'll be left in the lurch by the unfaithful Montand, Bergman enters into an affair with the much-younger Philip Van Der Besh (Anthony Perkins). Once he realizes that he's lost Paula to Philip, Roger offers to mend his rakish ways. She takes him back, and they are married; soon afterward, however, Roger goes back to his old skirt-chasing habits. Variety noted that Goodbye Again has "strong appeal for a middle-aged distaff audience"; nowadays, they'd call it a chick flick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is an untraditional film documentary that concerns Paris. Instead of covering the usual sights and sounds of the city, writer/director Chris Marks takes his film crew to the street and interviews people on the spot and in their homes. Comments range from the French-Algerian conflict and the stock market to everyday problems of housing, homelessness, working conditions and moral and religious observations. Although the classic art and culture that made Paris famous worldwide is discussed, the primary focus is on how Parisians look at themselves and their everyday lives. Yves Montand narrates the film, sounding too much like American cartoon character Pepe LePew. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide