Splitting the stylistic difference between his start in Germany (two films) & this first French feature, Anatole Litvak, that most cosmopolitan of directors, brings UFA flavor (especially in montage & dynamic composition) to a very French murder story that’s more character study than procedural. Triumphantly fluid, it bypasses any lingering Early Talkie stiffness right from the start as neighborhood urchins come across the body of a dead businessman. But while circumstantial evidence leads to a hasty arrest, it doesn’t convince detective André Luguet who goes undercover to find the real killer. Taking a room in one of the city’s roughest arrondisements, he’s got an eye on Lilas (Marcelle Romée), an independent ‘tart’ who lives and works right across from a bar where Jean Gabin runs the neighborhood riffraff. Thinking he’ll use the girl to pry info (perhaps a confession) from the mec, Luguet never imagines he’d fall for one and be threatened by the other. The story’s fine, but the real selling point is the local and period specific atmosphere Litvak finds in claustrophobic sets and plein air location work. With unusually strong set pieces like that opening reel when the body is discovered and the whole neighborhood shows up; a country wedding that finds Fernandel in an early appearance, or tragic songstress Fréhel back at the bar dueting with . . . Gabin! (Speaking of tragic, Marcelle Romée would suicide by year’s end, only 29.) Not a perfect film, but definitely worth the hunt.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: The poster at the top came out after the film’s initial run, and saw Gabin bumped from third to first-billed. Moving above the title in his breakout year.
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