Adapted from the novel by Eugène Sue by Maurice Bessy and Pierre Laroche
Starring : Marcel Herrand (Rodolphe de Neuville), Alexandre Rignault (le maître d'école), Lucien Coëdel (le Chourineur), Caecilia Paroldi (Fleur de Marie), Yolande Laffon (la comtesse Sarah Mac Gregor), Roland Toutain (Cabrion)
First mystery: where TV5 got the plot summary they used to describe this film on the program. Having just watched the movie, I'm a little confused about their interpretation, which refers to a girl killed accidentally and a plot by an odious baron de Laussignac. In the film I saw, a fellow rescues a young prostitute being harassed and so impresses the harasser with his fighting prowess that they go off to have a drink at a seedy dive, in which all of the characters have bad nicknames and bad makeup. Our hero takes the girl (Fleur-de-Marie, who bears a slightly disturbing resemblance to Judy Garland, insofar as she is supposed to be an abused orphan / child prostitute) to his house in the country, hands her over to the housekeeper and all will be well. He's apparently the Grand Duke of Gérolstein, and goes about the gutters in disguise, doing good deeds. Except that the proprietors of the dive where he found the girl want her back - they've raised her, and now she's a source of income for them.
Enter the Countess, our hero's ex-girlfriend, and a nasty piece of work in the form of her lawyer, Ferrand. There was a love child, and she's dead, or so we think...
dbdumonteil at IMDB comments claims this is the best of the several adaptations of Eugene Sue's novel, "Les Mystères de Paris." I'd hate to see the others if that's true. It's an 83-minute film based on a 1300-page novel, so obviously certain aspects will be a little sketchy. It retains a certain page-turner quality, however. It's entirely shot in studio, and the lighting and sets are actually quite distinct from the moody darkness of the 1930s - far too clean and well-lit, even in areas that are supposed to be dirty and sordid.
Herrand resembles himself to a distracting degree - he plays Lacenaire in Les Enfants du paradis two years later, and since I know that movie quite well it was confusing to watch our hero deliver noble speeches in the contemptuous style of Lacenaire, even more so since the movies are set around the same period.
There are multiple themes in this movie that never would have made it off the censor's desk in the United States. most notably a mysterious love child and a corrupt lawyer who trades protection for sexual favors.
Starring : Marcel Herrand (Rodolphe de Neuville), Alexandre Rignault (le maître d'école), Lucien Coëdel (le Chourineur), Caecilia Paroldi (Fleur de Marie), Yolande Laffon (la comtesse Sarah Mac Gregor), Roland Toutain (Cabrion)
First mystery: where TV5 got the plot summary they used to describe this film on the program. Having just watched the movie, I'm a little confused about their interpretation, which refers to a girl killed accidentally and a plot by an odious baron de Laussignac. In the film I saw, a fellow rescues a young prostitute being harassed and so impresses the harasser with his fighting prowess that they go off to have a drink at a seedy dive, in which all of the characters have bad nicknames and bad makeup. Our hero takes the girl (Fleur-de-Marie, who bears a slightly disturbing resemblance to Judy Garland, insofar as she is supposed to be an abused orphan / child prostitute) to his house in the country, hands her over to the housekeeper and all will be well. He's apparently the Grand Duke of Gérolstein, and goes about the gutters in disguise, doing good deeds. Except that the proprietors of the dive where he found the girl want her back - they've raised her, and now she's a source of income for them.
Enter the Countess, our hero's ex-girlfriend, and a nasty piece of work in the form of her lawyer, Ferrand. There was a love child, and she's dead, or so we think...
dbdumonteil at IMDB comments claims this is the best of the several adaptations of Eugene Sue's novel, "Les Mystères de Paris." I'd hate to see the others if that's true. It's an 83-minute film based on a 1300-page novel, so obviously certain aspects will be a little sketchy. It retains a certain page-turner quality, however. It's entirely shot in studio, and the lighting and sets are actually quite distinct from the moody darkness of the 1930s - far too clean and well-lit, even in areas that are supposed to be dirty and sordid.
Herrand resembles himself to a distracting degree - he plays Lacenaire in Les Enfants du paradis two years later, and since I know that movie quite well it was confusing to watch our hero deliver noble speeches in the contemptuous style of Lacenaire, even more so since the movies are set around the same period.
There are multiple themes in this movie that never would have made it off the censor's desk in the United States. most notably a mysterious love child and a corrupt lawyer who trades protection for sexual favors.
