Turns out all French director Jean Grémillon needs to lift his films from second to first tier is Jean Gabin in the lead.* Here, Gabin, very much in fighting trim in ‘37, vivifies the all-consuming/ill-fated romance between his girl-bait soldier boy and non-exclusive love Mireille Balin. Smoothly scripted by Charles Spaak from André Beucler’s novel (a closer translation of the title might be ‘a mouth made for love’), Gabin’s cock-of-the-walk officer loses his edge when he permanently takes off the uniform, leaving the army to follow ‘kept’ beauty Balin into civilian life. Quickly becoming too possessive, he threatens the security of her domestic set-up in Paris (Maman & valet particularly worried about losing M. Sugar-Daddy) while Balin is unconcerned by the idea of divided loyalty. What she fails to realize is that Gabin no longer knows if he’s subject or object in the relationship. Falling apart, he tries to restart (or is it hide away) his diminished self moving back near his old army base to run a small bar/gas station. And it’s there that an old army pal asks him to meet the new woman in his life . . . you know who, still longing for Gabin in her own inconsistent way. The plot, with overtones of CARMEN, lurches to hit all its uncomfortable points in the third act, but it’s very accomplished stuff even when Grémillon forces his hand, superbly atmospheric in location & character.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Balin is made up haute Dietrich style, the cheekbones, the pencil-thin eyebrows, le froid; and if she can’t quite pull it off, it does serve to remind you of Dietrich’s famous quote about her relationship with Gabin; ‘He had the most beautiful loins of any man.’ Yikes!
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: 1937 quite a year for Gabin with PÊPÊ LE MOKO and GRAND ILLUSION preceding. *OR: Try Gabin’s other film with Gremillon REMORQUES/’41. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/05/remorques-1941.html
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