Das Boot der Verdammten

A group of Nazi sympathizers of various nationalities board a submarine at Oslo on a secret mission to land in South America where it is planned that Hitler and the Third Reich will rise up once again. On navigating the English Channel, one of the party gets injured – Florence Marly (Mdm Garosi). She needs a doctor and it's the one thing that has been overlooked on this journey. So, they stop over in France and kidnap one – Henri Vidal (Guilbert). They resume their journey with the new arrival who realizes that his life is in danger as he now knows too much – he has to survive by making himself indispensable to the gang.

The whole story is pretty much set aboard the submarine. It's a novel setting and provides the necessary claustrophobic atmosphere as we wonder how and when our doctor hero is going to make his escape. Other characters don't fare too well when deciding to break free from the clutches of evil Jo Dest (Forster). By the way, this Dest character is a cartoon character Nazi who has a blatant homosexual arrangement with his young muscleman as played by Michel Auclair (Willy). Dest's male bitch is even given the name 'Willy' so that you are under no doubt that they like playing with each other's willies.

I give this film five stars although I would rather have given it one star, because of the other reviews posted here. I cannot say for sure that this is René Clement's weakest film but it is by far not his best and it is the weakest I can remember to have seen. It contains the typical Nazi stereotypes that were maybe true, I don't know, but nevertheless boring. Had the Nazis all have been such idiots they could hardly have lasted six years in a war against practically the whole world. True, they were first supported by the west to scare off the Bolsheviks but later on they were pretty much alone against the whole world. When it came out maybe there were not that many films about Nazi stereotypes and so it must have seemed better thenö but I review the film from the impact it could have to day and in that lite it is at best vaguely interesting but on no account whatsoever comparable with Les yeux interdit, for example. I just went through the list of Clements films and of the ones I've seen, this is indeed his weakest.

With the Nazi occupation still fresh in everyone's minds, it was no surprise that France made a movie about the Nazis. To be certain, René Clément's movie is one of the all-time masterpieces. "Les maudits" ("The Damned" in English) is about a group of Nazis and their sympathizers who board a submarine to South America towards the end of WWII, hoping to escape the consequences of Germany's defeat. But when an accident forces them to make a stop and pick up a doctor, things take a different turn.

This is one of the most claustrophobic movies that I've ever seen. Other reviewers have noted the similarities to "Das Boot". Whatever the case, the movie brings up the issue of responsibility. One could make the argument that the doctor has enabled these Nazis' crimes, even if he acted unwillingly. After all, the people aboard this submarine were very much committed to fascism.

Anyway, a fine piece of work. I intend to see more of Clément's movies now.

"Les maudits" (the damned) is a film from the early years of René Clement. It is entertaining, but it misses the refinement of "Jeux interdit" (1952, René Clement).

In "Der untergang" (2004, Oliver Hirschbiegel) a blinded Adolf Hitler stays in his Berlin bunker, walking straight into his defeat. Many of his advisers were more realistic about the chances of the Nazis in World War II and sought a safe harbour, often in South America. Novels such as "The Odessa file (1972, Frederick Forsyth, adapted by Ronald Neame in 1974) and "The boys from Brazil" (1976, Ira Levin, adapted by Franklin Schaffner in 1978) tell us about the activities of these ex Nazi's.

"Les maudits" is the missing link between these stories and World War II films. It tells us about the flight of some high ranking National Socialists in a submarine. The film misses however the tension of a submarine film like "Das Boot" (1981, Wolfgang Petersen) or the perversion and decadence of his namesake "The damned" (1969, Luchino Visconti). In the film the submarine with the Germans is a sort of Noah's ark, but the inhabitants are not selected by God but by the devil.

This is director René Clément's third full-length film and already we are aware that he is a great 'film technician' with an eye for detail.

It takes place in a German U-471, a wooden replica of which Clément had built at the Victorine studios. His production designer, Paul Bertrand, has done a wonderful job in recreating the interior and the tracking shots through the vessel by Henri Alekan are impressive. Apparently Clément installed a tilting mechanism to reproduce as much as possible the movements of the submarine.

Essentially dealing with the wages of political sin, the characters almost without exception are a thoroughly unsavoury and ignoble bunch with no redeeming features which naturally makes them horribly fascinating. The only decent character is the doctor of Henri Vidal and therefore infinitely less interesting! I have no doubt that Paul Bernard, Jo Dest and Florence Marly enjoyed their roles immensely. Marcel Dalio gets top billing here and plays 'une crapule' with his usual aplomb.

The film is not without its weaknesses. The punch-ups on board are far from convincing and the various deaths of the protagonists are handled in a very cold, clinical manner. An undeniable strength is the dialogue by renowned Henri Jeanson.

Clément's powerful first feature 'La Bataille du Rail' was filmed in a semi-documentary style whilst this one seems to fall between two stools, those of fact and fiction, with varying results.

This director made fifteen films in twenty-five years a few of which are undisputed masterpieces. 'Les Maudits' is alas not one of them but did in fact beat off some pretty stiff competition to win Best Film at Cannes. Devotees of 'Psycho' please note the scene where a murdered man pulls down the curtain rail from the rod!