Der Menschenjäger

This rarest of Veronica Lake movies doesn't amount to much cinematically, but at least it exists - albeit in a French language only version. Its over lit and cheaply shot in gruesome colour, though Lake does look, well, rather well for this period (her alcoholism is well documented in her memoir). She has a few long, overwritten scenes, and is quite expressive facially, though she is dubbed in French. The 'plot' barely registers - zoom shots of teens in winter sweaters in the snow, or dancing in pinewood cabins. Completists may want to see it, though, and the only Lake starrers I have yet to see "Hold that Blonde" or "Isn't it romantic?".

I was compelled to write a review upon seeing this rarity. First of all, I don't speak French. This review is based entirely on the visual. It was not unusual to jump genres throughout a film during this time period. The film reminds me of the Beach/Go Go Girls/Spy Movie that were prominent in the early 1960's. In other words, a fun film, not to be taken seriously.

To give you an idea, I'll recap the opening five minutes. A dying man crawls through the snow during the opening credits. Young people talk outside a ski lodge. A hot girl walks by, one young man is greatly impressed. A man on a snowmobile finds the dead body in the snow. Inside the lodge, The Jaybees perform, while girls dance in bikinis. And on it goes. There are girls in bikinis having snowball fights and there is some serious business with the police probing the death of the man in the snow.

The print I saw is from an old vhs release and looked decent. The colour was a little muddied as one previous review mentioned, but that is the fault of the transfer and not the original film release. I hunted this down to see Ms. Lake so let us get to that. She looks good. Her hair is shorter, pulled back, but the bang that always wanted to fall over her eye is still there. Though not long enough to cover her eye. She seems to relish her role, which calls for an over the top, almost comical performance. She plays the heavy and she looks like she's having fun. Peace Veronica.

There is always with me a main reason or two for watching any film etc. The most frequent ones being great casts and an appetising concept. My main reason here for seeing 'Footsteps in the Snow' was Veronica Lake, a very underrated actress with a great and immensely promising but too brief prime period who died too young and deserved better projects when her career declined. Without her and my want to see all her films, the film would still be unknown to me.

'Footsteps in the Snow' is her penultimate film and perhaps her most obscure. Managing to track it down online, under a German title, to me it was a long way from unwatchable but it is not hard to see why it's not better known. It is not her very worst film, that will always be the dreadful 'Flesh Feast', but 'Sullivan's Travels', 'This Gun for Hire', 'I Married a Witch' and 'The Blue Dahlia' it most certainly isn't. Lake is the main and only real reason to see 'Footsteps in the Snow', otherwise there is not an awful lot going for it.

Lake doesn't come off too badly, actually think she did very well and thought she gave a very expressive and professional performance that did have moments of iciness but also a lot of authority and with no over-acting like some acting in the over-protective mother type of role can resort to.

Some of the scenery is very nice and authentically wintry. Some of the music is pleasant to listen to and haunting.

Others parts, too many of them, come over as very repetitively scored. Actually found myself very annoyed by the end of the film by the song repeatedly used, a shame because it wasn't too bad a song but would have made far more positive an impact if it was used a lot more subtly. The scenery is also wasted by the very drearily lit and haphazard photography. While Lake is good, Meredith MacRae and Peter Kastner for my tastes were very bland and their chemistry, a crucial element of the film, never ignited.

Moreover, the script tends to be too rambling, too flowery and has too much fat. The direction tends to be too lethargic and disorganised and when the story isn't paper thin and lacking in any kind of substance it is very dull and can be rather odd in atmosphere. The ending agreed really does feel like too much of a disconnect with what comes before and perplexes.

In conclusion, has its moments but pretty weak. Namely for Lake completests. 3/10