Raymond Rouleau Movies

Laurent (Pierre Brasseur) is a newspaper reporter sent to investigate a string of mysterious small-town murders. Although he fails to solve the crime, he uncovers a murder plot concocted by a wife and her lover to kill the woman's husband. The uneven feature careens from comedy to drama with some thrills added and a surprise ending. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This puzzling experimental film is written and directed by Raymond Rouleau, who uses effects like changing color tones and masks to put across a drama within a dance drama. The set is a sound stage and the actors in this film are dancers on the stage, performing a mime-ballet derived from one particular legend. Both the enacted legend and the actual events affecting the dancers are parallel. The lead dancer Isa (Ludmila Tcherina) is still nursing her wounds after her first love left her to stand alone at the altar. Now one of the dancers wants to expand his relationship with Isa -- and soon after, the cad who jilted her suddenly shows up again. Tragedy follows closely behind. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, 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

The world of the theater is the backdrop for this sublimely assembled whodunit. A stage director (Raymond Rouleau) becomes the prime suspect in the death of his assistant, who may or may not have been messing around with the director's wife (Jeanne Moreau). The wife helps her husband hide out from the police, taking over his responsibilities in the theater. Soon she is flourishing in the world of make-believe, and she has fallen under the spell of the duplicitous rat who started all of the trouble in the first place. Saving the day is the director's good-hearted secretary (Etchika Choureau), who has long harbored a crush on her boss. Le Intrigantes was released stateside as The Plotters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Humanitarian Albert Schweitzer still had a dozen years worth of good works left in him in 1952; thus, the title of this French biopic, which translates to It is Midnight, Dr. Schweitzer, was a trifle premature. Pierre Fresnay stars as Schweitzer, while Jeanne Moreau co-stars as Marie, his dedicated nurse. The film begins with Schweitzer's graduation from medical school and his decision to travel to Gabon in Africa, there to establish a free clinic for the natives. Accompanying the doctor is Marie, who'd originally become a nurse to overcome an unfortunate romance, but who is soon swept up in Schweitzer's noble cause. The climax finds Schweitzer facing deportation as an "unfriendly alien" during WW I. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Massacre en Dentelles (Massacre in Lace) concerns a devil-may-care reporter named George (Raymond Rouleau). Sent to Venice to get the goods on a gang of counterfeiters, George would much rather enjoy the city's many creature comforts. He finally gets down to work when he discovers a corpse, the first of many to dot the Venetian landscape in this airy little thriller. Theresa (Anne Vernon) is but one of the many ladies who melt like butter when Our Hero saunters into view--but is she to be trusted? At 105 minutes, Massacre en Dentelles is a smidgen too long for its own good. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The French Just a Big, Simple Girl strives to emulate Pirandello by blurring the line between artifice and reality. The scene is a theater, where a group of actors are performing in a play. We have already been informed that there is a real-life romantic triangle going on backstage, but the actors gamely act out their roles as if everything is okay. But everything becomes no-kay when a strange woman walks on stage and begins digressing from the script. Just a Big, Simple Girl was originally titled Une Grande Fille Toute Simple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Raymond Rouleau stars in Le Couple Ideal as a French movie leading man, circa 1912. Slated to appear at a gala for President Armand Falieres, Rouleau is detained by the police at the behest of a scheming producer. To escape the clutches of the law and make it to the celebration on time, our hero is forced to adopt a series of clever disguises. Helene Perdiere costars as a "Perils of Pauline"-type actress who ends up in Rouleau's arms. As a lampoon of the early silent era, Le Couple Ideal is not quite as memorable as Rene Clair's Le Silence C'est D'Or. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide