Mollenard

I do not intend to place this movie in Siodmak's career, neither to relate it to other French creations of the period, probably the most creative of French cinema. The other reviewers did it quite well.

I would just like to send some words about what I saw tonight.

The film is obviously a diptych. There is enough matter to make two complete movies. Or two "époques" of one, like were made "Les enfants du paradis".

The two stories, having their own mood and a complete background, could be seen independently.

The first is of exotic adventures, where fast women, arms smuggling, big money, betrayals, fights, near death by many ways and hazardous salvation are mixed in a convincing studio recreation. All the sub-plots are here, waiting for a bit more space to develop: a desperate romance between an out-cast and a lounge singer, the war at the gates of the 'Concession internationale', the 'Chinese' cruelty of the local tycoons (the biggest happening to be French and played by Pierre Renoir), the hypocrisy of the company owing Mollenard's ship, ready to discard him since he's trafficking weapons, yes, but no more for the company's interests. Harry Baur is at ease, more than I ever saw him, on this part, playing with loquacity and a physical tensity surprisingly high for someone of his shape. The side-kicks are perfect, even in their most clichéd moments. Suffice to name just one: Marcel Dalio.

The second époque is of solitary confinement and domestic hatred. Elements of this struggle were fore-said through the prologue of the movie. But when Commandant Mollenard, back to Dunkerque, on the verge to win his fight against the company, is badly hit by a sudden illness, his most feared future seems to become reality, as he can't escape from his wife, supremely incarnated by a Gabrielle Dorziat at the top of her art. The fight, anxiously anticipated by Mollenard, promise to be much harder an ordeal than any street fighting in Shanghai for the eponymous hero.

Two halves for one united work, each part being nourished by allusions, events, talks, referring to the other. The main recall of the first in the second is Mollenard's crew which plays a collective part, with the help of intelligently crafted dialogs. The second part of the film is announced in the first when Mollenard says to the representative of the company that he fears only one thing, to die "in her home, at Dunkerque".

Hence, the conclusion, superbly lead by the narration, in a collective bravado, is perfect.

Something about the music: there is none, or almost. And I have to think about it to notice that no music was needed. Actually, there is some music heard: in the opening and final credits, and also a song, 'Shanghai magic city', sung in the jet-set lounge, and most notably a short piece during the last minute, where two violins, a flute, an organ are enough to enhance emotion.

Some words on the actors. Harry Baur, I'll say it again, is in his best role, in my opinion. He is Mollenard in every square inch of his skin. Gabrielle Dorziat is great too, serving excellently a part which is absolutely not one-dimensional. Albert Préjean, as the second, Kérotré, is much more restrained than usually, and it fits him very well.

All the others, Devère, Baumer, and so on, are used for the best effects. This bunch of French screen second-tier players are what also makes this cinema so valuable.

And there is the short but smashing presence of Ludmilla Pitoëff (Marie, Mollenard's daughter). Never seen before on screen, never to appear again, the stellar beauty of the actress is one sufficient reason to watch the film.

I hope I made you understand that there are many other reasons.

"Mollenard"? Un grand film, tout simplement.

Harry Baur (Mollenard) is commander of a ship that is profiteering from the smuggling of arms and he has a loyal crew headed by first mate Albert Prejean (Kerrotret). Their loyalty to him is blind with a nod to homosexual adoration. We've all heard of the expression "Hello sailor!" and understand its inference. This mob are tough, though, and they are always at the ready to fight. No mincing around for these guys. The one softer addition to the crew - musician Marcel Dalio (Happy Jones) - is given rough treatment as he is an informer and double crosser. Trust the French to give the soft cast member an English name - ha ha! They really have a chip on their shoulders.

The film is in 2 separate stages - the gangster world and intrigue of the 1st half of the film set against the more domesticated drama-driven world of the 2nd half where there is a good cat-and-mouse power battle between Baur and his socially aspiring wife Gabrielle Dorziat, both of whom hate one another. It makes for some funny moments. The 2nd half just veers off and loses its zip somewhere along the line. However, Baur will be very happy with his final moments and send-off.

It is sad to read that 2 of the cast were to lose their lives to the Nazis - one tortured and another executed.

Harry Baur is the skipper of a ship. Nominally, it belongs to a respectable shipping company based in Dunkirk. In reality, he is a freebooter, smuggling arms into Shanghai, double-crossing the man whom he's supposed to sell them to, getting drunk, shanghaiing Dalio out of a bar, and adored by his first mate Albert Préjean and his crew of roughnecks. The company plans to fire and blacklist him, but when the followers of the man he cheated start an unstoppable fire aboard ship, the company pretends he is a hero; otherwise they won't collect the insurance for the ship.

But now that he's back home, he falls under the power of the people who hate him: his wife, Gabrielle Dorziat, the weak, political Pierre Renoir, who doesn't understand ships and the men who sail at them, and the whole stinking apparatus of respectable society.

It's written by O. P. Gilbert from his own novel, with some dialogue by Charles Spaak, but with Harry Baur in the lead, everything else washes out; it took a stronger director than Robert Siodmak to order Baur about, but who would want to? It's a profane, bawdy, rough house movie that could not have been made in the United States since the imposition of the Code, and it's probable that only Baur could have played the part.

This picture should go by its French title, "Mollenard", since in 2013 'Hatred' conjures up images of hate crime and blind hypocrisy. Mollenard is the name of the title character, a ships Captain without a moral compass. Any hatred conjured up by the alternate title is directed at any authority figure and, especially, his harridan wife. I would not call it a 'noir' because, without going into detail here, it does not meet noir criteria. Besides, it is too early in film history for such a label.

And so, I was not totally prepared for what was on the screen. I found it was a one-man show about a Captain (Harry Baur) who hated his wife and loved the sea. He was employed by a shipping company and was a gun runner on the side. It is a fascinating portrait of a man leading two lives, preferring the one that keeps him away from home. Approaching old age, he has become careless(carefree) and self-indulgent, and with a ruthless element in business dealings, which take place in Shanghai. This is the melodramatic part of the film, while scenes at home in Dunkirk are tinged with a great deal of humor, chiefly in exchanges between the Captain and his wife.

It is a tour de force for Baur, who was reputedly a renowned actor in 20's and 30's Europe. The contrast between the libertine Captain and his grasping, status-conscious wife (Gabrielle Dorziat) is a thing to behold. And the bond between him and his fiercely loyal crew is palpable. The film was shown at MOMA, NYC, 4/13. IMDb directors should note that running time was clocked at 105 minutes.

The second half of the thirties was the moment when the French cinema was at its best !Only the Nouvelle Vague aficionados will disagree ,more power to them but boy If I could,I 'd find the mathematical formula which would prove me right.

Take Robert Siodmak:"Mollenard" is probably his French masterpiece,the great work he threatened to make during his French years .Along with "Pièges" (1939).Suffice to say that these two films (and particularly "Mollenard" )contain the seeds of everything he would make in America in the forties,particularly his films noirs and his thrillers.But none of his American movies can be compared to "Mollenard" where the director reaches for the first time a breathtaking directing maturity.

Charles Spaak ,the script writer ,comes up with plenty of his better lines.The dialog is sometimes so anarchistic ,so risqué in the writer's vitriolic style that they say the 1937 audience was baffled by the crudeness of the language.Simply,it has something of Renoir's first bourgeois attacks such as "la chienne" -there are many similarities- .

The film features two parts ,and those two halves do not seem to belong to the same film;against all odds ,they do...

ROBERT SIODMAK: A FILM NOIR GENIUS. Suffice to write he made "the killers" " cry of the city" and "criss cross" to name but three. At least 50 minutes of the film are film noir virtuosity where virtually all the scenes are unforgettable: a mythic Shanghai recreated in a studio -but as exotic as Von Sternberg's "Shanghai Gesture" - where a captain and his crew indulge in illegal practices :arms dealing .Siodmak's flair hits home at every picture:the young Chinese contact standing tied on his boat ,the international concession where "no one can come back alive" from this dark part of the town,among the ruins,the fog and the machine gun waiting for the sailors;Dalio's face in the mirror which a bullet breaks ;Dalio's death on his piano,after he confessed that anyway he was bound to lose and it was not his fault if he was an informer.The characters move like jaded human beings ,almost zombies,or as if they were out of an opium den.The ship which catches fire in the night...

The captain of a wrecked ship is always a hero.Although the company knows they were traffickers (first for the company itself ,then for themselves,a thing the boss cannot stand),an official fanfare is waiting for them ;actually two are here in Dunkirk harbor,for their buddies have their own band which plays "Dors Mon P'Tit Quinquin" in a gleeful cacophony while the other breaks into "le Régiment de Sambre et Meuse.In a fit of anarchistic delirium ,the captain stops the stodgy speech a notable is delivering and refuses to kiss his wife ("I'd sooner snuff it!") This wife ,we met her at the beginning of the movie.It's a sexually repressed bourgeois character ,full of bigotry (you'll serve tea and biscuits to the vicar;you "ll bring the jam jar but don't you open it") ,despise and hate for her husband .Everytime he returns is for her a calvary.

The performances will blow your mind:Harry Baur was definitely the strongest actor of the era ,an anarchistic macho when he was a sailor, an anti-bourgeois anti-clerical boor when he comes home and then a poor bedridden man asking for a revolver to end his life with dignity;Albert Préjean gives fine support as the big-hearted second in command;Gabrielle Dorziat shines in her part of a selfish socialite who smiles when she takes her dying hubby to bed;Marcel Dalio who was often cast as a traitor is so pitiful the audience feels like forgiving him;Robert Lynen portrays Baur's son (he'd already done it in Duvivier's "Poil de carotte" 1932),a shy boy who's afraid of his father (and of his over possessive mum).Both Baur and Lynen,oddly,were killed by the Nazis.

At a time when the French cinema was at his best,I say it again,"Mollenard " compares favorably with all the classics of the era "Quai des Brumes" "Pépé le Moko" " Le crime de Monsieur Lange".It's the lost great masterpiece of the golden age.It's essential viewing for anyone interested in Robert Siodmak's sensational American career.

The final pictures are superb for the captain has finally come home.

The captain cried,

we sailors wept

Our tears were tears of joy

A salty dog ,

the seaman's log

Your witness my own hand (Keith Reid)