Marcel Mouloudji Movies

This is an interesting but no more than routine drama by director Raoul Andre about the fragile nature of sanity when one is under extreme duress. Set during World War II in France, the story begins when a resistance fighter is given shelter in an asylum by a friend who manages the institution. Soon after, the manager is arrested by the Gestapo, which gets the resistance fighter involved. He finds the informer who set his friend up and kills him. But then no one will believe his story about the informer and he becomes desperate enough to start losing his own mental balance. A young doctor and the daughter of one of the inmates help him keep it together, but he knows he cannot continue like this for long. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Franciolin) FI An all-star lineup of actors and directors was responsible for the omnibus feature Secrets D'Alcove. The film is made up of four separate playlets; the only "character" common to the four stories is a huge bed. The characters whose behavior is governed by being in close proximity of this bed include a soldier (Richard Todd), a philanderer (Vittorio de Sica), a professional co-respondent (Dawn Addams), a couresan (Martine Carol) and a truckdriver (Mouloudji). Naturally, the screenplay contrives to have the film's female characters appear as underdressed as possible, none more so than the curvaceous Martine Carol. The basic premise of Secrets D'Alcove was later adopted, after a fashion, by the American TV anthology series Love American Style (1979-72). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The short stories of Guy de Maupassant enjoyed a renaissance in the early 1950s, thanks in great part to the Max Ophuls production Le Plaisir. In Trois Femmes, three De Maupassant stories are dramatized, each conveying the central theme of women falling in love. In the first, a black female carnival entertainer causes an uproar when she falls in love with a white soldier. In the second, a young bride is pressured into having a baby to collect a huge inheritance. And in the final episode, a pregnant girl is "adopted" and protected by a small circle of friends. In standard De Maupassant fashion, each of the three stories in Trois Femmes is capped by a surprise twist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Released in the US as The Chips are Down, Jean Delannoy's Les Jeux sont Faits represented the first work written directly for the screen by Jean-Paul Sartre. Not surprisingly, the film is drenched with existentialist philosophy, but overall it works best as a romantic tragedy. The story takes place in an unnamed dictatorship, resistance fighter Pierre (Marcello Pagliero) is killed in a street confrontation. Almost simultaneously, Eve (Micheline Presle), the wife of the dictator, dies of poison administered by her unfaithful husband. Pierre and Eve rematerialize on a dismal little street outside of Heaven's waiting room, where the businesslike admissions clerk (Marguerite Moreno) informs them that they might have become lovers had they met while still alive--and that it is possible to briefly return them to Earth to find out if their romance could have been consummated. Desperately, Eve and Pierre agree to be restored to life, hoping not only to fall in love but also to alter the events leading up to their deaths. Alas, and inevitably, nothing works out as planned. Though Sartre's traditional defeatism is prevalent throughout Les Jeux Sont Faits, what lingers longest in the memory is the brilliant performance by Micheline Presle and the (literally) haunting musical score by Georges Auric. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Les Disparus de Saint-Agil (Missing from St. Agil) would be worth watching if only for the chop-licking performance by Erich von Stroheim. The story takes place at a typical French boys' school, where director Aime Clairond pursues the not-so-typical pastime of turning out counterfeit bank notes. When student Claudio tumbles onto Clairond's printing press, the villain kidnaps the boy and spirits him off to parts unknown. Clairond then murders his partner-in-crime, art teacher Michel Simon, for fear that Simon will spill the beans during one of his drinking binges. Surprisingly, Von Stroheim, cast as the school's language teacher (he converses eloquently in both French and German), turns out to be the hero of the peace, putting an end to Clairond's skullduggery and rescuing poor Claudio. The film was directed in the manner of a Republic serial by the reliable Christian-Jaque. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi