Charles Vanel Movies

French director Henri Decoin was married to actress Danielle Darrieux for nearly seven years during which time he cast her in several uninspiring vehicles such as this one. Darrieux plays Lydia, a struggling law student who poses as the estranged daughter of famous historian Jacques Ferney (Charles Vanel). She abuses Ferney's confidence in order to make him adopt her, thus ending her financial problems. Later, the fledgling lawyer finds herself in court, defending a woman in similar circumstances. Vanel and Darrieux are quite good in their early scenes, but the last part of the film seems wooden and contrived. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Remi (Charles Vanel) is a man on the verge of old age who begins to have hallucinations. He believes he has found a dog, but the canine is just a product of his imagination. The man takes a turn for the worse when his only friend, his poet neighbor, moves. He is left alone with his hallucinations and tries in vain to separate fantasy from reality in this plodding, depressing feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Crossroads is the English title for Carrefour, directed in France by German-born Kurt (later Curtis) Bernhardt. Suzy Prin and Jules Berry star in this master blend of amnesia, romance and deceit. A respected French diplomat is blackmailed by criminals, who insist that the diplomat, who'd once suffered a loss of memory, had been a crook in his previous "life". When Kurt Bernhardt emigrated to the US, he was signed by Warner Bros., thus had no opportunity to work on MGM's remake of Carrefour (again titled Crossroads) starring William Powell, Hedy Lamarr and Basil Rathbone. The story would be adapted a third time for the 1950 British melodrama Dead Man's Shoes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nolan (Serge Reggiani) was set up to take the fall for a crime committed by his whole gang, and as a result, his brother is dead and he is forced to do a stint in prison. Nolan comes out of prison looking for his former compatriots, and not just to shake their hands. He runs into an old girlfriend, Madeleine (Jeanne Moreau), now a respectable doctor's wife. Another woman he encounters, Lea (Simone Signoret), betrays him to an enemy. The remaining cast includes a number of fine French actors who add depth to this suspense thriller (Charles Vanel, Marcel Bozzuffi, Andre Pousse, Michel Bouquet, Amidou and Jean Desailly). This is a French language film, with no dubbing or subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Silent films that were produced at the end of the silent era tend to be overlooked when praise for outstanding filmmaking is handed out. This premiere production by Charles Vanel is no exception. It was shot in 1929, when "talkies" were already the mainstay of all new productions. Even when it was made, this remarkable film was overlooked, and the director (Vanel) had to make his mark as an actor, instead. He had the longest film career of any French actor: his first film appearance was in 1912, his last in 1988, and he was in over 200 films. His remarkable career was honored in 1970 by the Cannes Film Festival with a lifetime achievement award. Dans la nuit, revived in 1989, (the year Vanel died) was belatedly recognized as a classic of silent filmmaking. The story concerns a newlywed quarry worker, and the strategems he devises to avoid repulsing his wife after an accident which results in his having a horribly mutilated face. Among other things, he wears a veil to hide his deformity. Eventually, his beloved wife takes a new lover (also a quarry worker) and in order to avoid detection he sometimes wears a veil, simply to hide his face. The worker discovers the deception, and a primal struggle between the two men begins. Even now, the outcome of that struggle has the power to surprise. The studio Vanel worked for insisted that he tack on a happy-ending sequence ("it was just a dream"), and reviewers suggest that viewers leave the theatre or stop the video to avoid having that saccharine contrivance spoil the dark moodiness of the original film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The greatest film that Alfred Hitchcock never made, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Diabolique is set in a provincial boarding school run by headmaster Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse). A ruthless lothario, he becomes the target of a murder plot concocted by his long-suffering invalid wife Christina (Vera Clouzot, the director's own spouse) and his latest mistress, an icy teacher played by Simone Signoret. A dark, dank thriller with a much-imitated "shock" ending, Diabolique is a masterpiece of Grand Guignol suspense. The simple murder plot goes haywire, and Michel's corpse disappears, prompting strange rumors of his reappearance which grow more and more substantial as the film careens wildly towards its breathless conclusion. Later remade as a greatly inferior 1996 Hollywood feature with Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Ever since the original Rififi set up the postulate of a spectacular robbery, there have been cinematic "Rififis" in Amsterdam, Paris, Panama, and in this case, Tokyo. A band of thieves get together in Japan's capital to plan a major heist of only one single jewel -- a huge diamond stored in a vault in the Bank of Tokyo. Preparations for the heist are not without problems, and in the end only three of the thieves manage to get into the vault where the diamond is stored. Thanks to modern bank security, the next problem is how to get out of the vault. Directed by Jacques Deray, this melodramatic crime caper shines in the special technical effects department when the electronic gismos that protect bank vaults are highlighted, but the illumination does not extend to human characters in quite the same way. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide