Yves Montand Movies

Uomini e Lupi was released outside of Italy as Men and Wolves. Pedro Armendariz and Yves Montand star as a pair of courageous wolf-hunters in the Abruzzi region of Italy. When Montand returns to his village with a dog instead of a wolf, he is branded a coward. He redeems himself by teaming with Armendariz' wife Sylvia Magnano to kill the wolf who claims the life of her husband. It's a simple story, imbued with powerful visual dynamics by Giuseppe De Santis. Especially impressive is the climax, staged during a blinding snowstorm (it's the real thing, too!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

La Grande Strada Azzura was also released as Squarcio, which happens to be the name of the character played by star Yves Montand. Squarcio is a provincial fisherman who expedites his daily catch through the illegal use of dynamite. The other villagers disapprove of Squarcio's methods, but they refuse to turn him into the authorities. Our hero finds out that he has no real friends when he's on the verge of being caught in the act. Promising to mend his ways, Squarcio goes back to his old tricks as soon as the heat is off. His final comeuppance both predictable and inevitable, but cleverly handled by director Gillo Ponteverco. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marguerite de la Nuit is filmmaker Claude Autant-Lara's spin on the "Faust" legend. Though updated to 1925, the story of the ageing pedant who sells his soul to Satan in exchange for youth and knowledge is fairly faithful to the Goethe original. The one major alteration is Satan's decision to "go easy" on the long-suffering Marguerite (played by Michele Morgan). His Satanic Majesty is portrayed with a surfeit of wry Gallic charm by Yves Montand. As Autant-Lara's follow-up to his classic Le Rouge et le Noir, Marguerite de la Nuit cannot help but disappoint; on its own, however, it's not bad. ~ 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

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

Parigi e Sempre Parigi (Paris is Always Paris) was the second feature-length effort from famed Italian documentary director Luciano Emmer. Whereas Emmer's first feature, Domenica d'Agosto (Sunday in August) was a warm-hearted study of the Italian middle class, Parigi concentrates on a gentle cultural clash between a band of Italian sports fans and the citizenry of Paris. The hero, DeAngelis (Aldo Fabrizi), has heard so much about "naughty Paree" that he's determined to experience that naughtiness first hand. This plot device, of course, obliges the director to introduce several delectable French mademoiselles in the proceedings. Ultimately, DeAngelis realizes that reports of French libertinism have been grossly exaggerated, but he has a high old time finding this out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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