Le voleur

Fernand is madly in love with Maryse ,his uncle's wife ;just before the dinner ,he avows his passion for her,but she turns down his advances ,for he is still a child,and in a couple of years , he will laugh at his behavior when he finds a girl his age; but a thief is present in the house ,and a private eye soon finds the culprit :it must be Fernand ,who entertains a lover in red-light districts and bets on the horses .The father's verdict is merciless:although he still loves his sonny ,he sends him to Asia for two years where the family has business to care for ;when he returns ,he shall be a man !But is he really guilty of theft?

Like many movies of the post-silent age ,it's based on a play and it shows ;it depicts the love of a young man for an older woman (Renaud was six years Aumont's senior) , a subject Lherbier would resume in "la porte du large" (1939) in which Aumont would vie with daddy Victor Francen (here present as his uncle thus his rival too).

Less ponderous a melodrama than "la porte du rage", this one is watchable ,weren't it only for Renaud and Francen.