Magali Noël Movies

Raid on the Drug Ring is the English-language title of this Jean Gabin vehicle. The venerable French leading man plays the curiously sympathetic head of an international narcotics ring, invited from across the Atlantic to oversee the European branch of his operation. Using a fancy restaurant as a cover, the drug lord keeps his fingers in several crooked pies. One questionable sequence suggests that black singers and dancers can only "swing" when high on drugs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rene Clair's Grand Maneuver was originally titled Les Grandes Manoeuvres, which should surprise no one. Gerard Phillipe plays a dashing dragoons officer, vintage 1913, who wagers his friends that he can make the next woman who enters the room fall in love with him. In strides drop-dead gorgeous Michele Morgan, and the rest writes itself. Phillipe plans a slow seduction and a quick goodbye; Morgan, need we say, is no "goodbye girl." For all its lavish sets and meticulously detailed period costumers, Grand Maneuver is at base the old American farce Sailor Beware with a French accent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the 1950s, French films were considered the ne plus ultra in naughtiness by certain impressionable filmgoers. It was to these movie fans that the American distributor of Jean Renoir's Elena et les Hommes (Elena and the Men) catered when it provocatively retitled the picture Paris Does Strange Things As further grist to the mill for American publicity hacks, the film starred Ingrid Bergman, who had recently returned to Hollywood after her career was nearly ruined by a marital scandal. Actually there was nothing overtly erotic about Paris Does Strange Things. The film was a sweet romantic comedy wherein Bergman plays a poverty-stricken Polish princess, who is wooed by eligible admirers Mel Ferrer and Jean Marais. Will she marry for love, or merely to restore her wealth? The suspense is bearable. Inexpertly cut to 86 minutes for its American showings, Paris Does Strange Things was restored to its full 98 minutes in 1986 and its title reverted to Elena et les Hommes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A so-so drama with uneven acting, this is a tale of three women and one man trapped on a deserted island in World War II after a shipwreck. Christian Marquand is Patrick, the lone man who cannot but develop a relationship with all three women. Their fates are not what might be expected, as the women slowly reveal their true natures. One tries to get to another island to find help, and one turns out to be pathologically homicidal. She kills the only other woman, leaving two choices for her murderous inclination -- herself or Patrick or both. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Le Piege (The Trap) top-bills Raf Vallone as a likeable fugitive from justice. Protected from arrest by big-hearted waitress Magali Noel, Vallone manages to elude the law long enough to begin a legit job as a truckdriver. When Noel's boss learns the truth about Vallone's past, he blackmails the couple to ensure his silence. Any character who thinks he can get away with extortion in a film noir of this nature all but has "MURDER VICTIM" tattooed on his forehead. Compactly produced and consummately acted, Le Piege is a satisfying second-echelon thriller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At the time of this film, director John Berry was still working in France where he landed after being blacklisted in the early 1950s by the House Un-American Activities Committee. This routine light comedy interspersed with songs is mainly a vehicle for talents like singer Dario Moreno as, not surprisingly, Dario the bank teller who longs to be a singer. Comics (Alberto Sordi as Nando) add touches of humor, while other actors such as Michel Serrault as a police inspector do their best with a script that is slight enough to come off as somewhat bland. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In one of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of the 1960s, Federico Fellini featured Marcello Mastrioanni as gossip columnist Marcello Rubini. Having left his dreary provincial existence behind, Marcello wanders through an ultra-modern, ultra-sophisticated, ultra-decadent Rome. He yearns to write seriously, but his inconsequential newspaper pieces bring in more money, and he's too lazy to argue with this setup. He attaches himself to a bored socialite (Anouk Aimée), whose search for thrills brings them in contact with a bisexual prostitute. The next day, Marcello juggles a personal tragedy (the attempted suicide of his mistress (Yvonne Furneaux)) with the demands of his profession (an interview with none-too-deep film star Anita Ekberg). Throughout his adventures, Marcello's dreams, fantasies, and nightmares are mirrored by the hedonism around him. With a shrug, he concludes that, while his lifestyle is shallow and ultimately pointless, there's nothing he can do to change it and so he might as well enjoy it. Fellini's hallucinatory, circus-like depictions of modern life first earned the adjective "Felliniesque" in this celebrated movie, which also traded on the idea of Rome as a hotbed of sex and decadence. A huge worldwide success, La Dolce Vita won several awards, including a New York Film Critics CIrcle award for Best Foreign Film and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As in François Truffaut's award-winning first picture, 400 Blows, Jean-Pierre Leaud once again takes up the role of a besieged and troubled teen in Boulevard. But that ends the points of similarity between the dramas, since this is a routine and uneven film, not up to director Julien Duviver's usual standard. This time around, the young hero is a sixteen-year-old by the name of Georges whose problems do not stem as much from himself as from the people around him. After running away from home, he has rather shattering encounters with an oversize striptease diva and two aggressive gay men, as well as an on-going antagonism with a boxer who is as pleasant as a wounded bull. These run-ins with life on the streets inevitably have their effect on Georges, no longer as naive as when he first left home. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide