Le loup des Malveneur

Pierre Renoir has hired Madeleine Sologne to tutor his small daughter. Meanwhile, he spends his time in his unseen laboratory too solve two problems: the longstanding family curse of lycanthropy, and his lack of a male heir. Mlle Sologne falls in love with local artist Michel Marsay even as Renoir, his wife, and his gamekeeper disappear. Have the wolves gotten them, or is it something darker?

Here's a movie from wartime France, looking a lot like the Universal horror movies near the end of their serious cycle. One advantage this has over the American product is the depth of time. The characters speak of centuries, lending a far more gothic air to the proceedings, a sense bad blood instead of unprefigured insanity. Could this be the anomie that afflicted much of French cinema in the period, national shame at the failure in arms, the failure of rational French science to deal with problems?

It adds a frisson to this otherwise unremarkable genre programmer.

This was a movie that I found when searching for horror from 1943. I had to purchase a subtitled copy of this one on DVD to check it out since this is from France. It intrigued me there since seeing the title, I thought werewolf movie. My brain then shifted to Brotherhood of the Wolf. This isn't a telling of that story, but it is a familiar concept.

Synopsis: a young governess arrives at the castle of the Malveneurs and begins to investigate peculiar disappearances.

We start this by learning about a curse in the area. It sounds like the wolves hunted the area and a man became one since he would run and hunt with them. There were crimes that were committed, with this man being punished. The legend is that he was a werewolf. There is another part with killing one with an ax and pushes the boundaries of what we know with science as well.

It then shifts to a group in a room chatting. Reginald de Malveneur (Pierre Renoir) is a scientist. He is working on cell regeneration with the pressure being on. There seems to be an illness within the family. That makes me think there could be a history of inbreeding amongst the local royalty. His wife is Estelle (Marie Olinska) and they have a daughter, Geneviève (Bijou). Magda (Gabrielle Dorziat) is the sister to Reginald and she has a commanding personality. Also staying here is a maid, Marianne (Marcelle Géniat), who is deaf/mute. There is also Édouard (Yves Furet) who seems like a groundskeeper.

Arriving to take on the role of governess to Geneviève is Monique Valory (Madeleine Sologne). She has a rough go when the man bringing her luggage doesn't want to make small talk and drops it off part of the way there, forcing her to carry it the rest. She is met with a cold shoulder from Marianne. This is understandable. Magda is also cold, but she doesn't like outsiders. Monique and Geneviève do hit off though.

Another character to introduce is Philippe Lafortelle (Michel Marsay). He makes friends with Monique, but Magda doesn't like that he is trespassing. He is a painter and set up close to the castle to capture the landscape. Despite being sent away, we see him talking to Monique whenever he gets the chance.

Now to go back to the synopsis, the de Malveneurs' gamekeeper disappears. This makes Monique suspicious when she sees Magda come in that night and the governess also finds a scarf that belongs to someone living here. Monique decides to figure out the truth before it is too late once Estelle goes missing.

That is where I'm going to leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I saw the beginning of someone else's review about this movie. I'm wondering if we saw the same print as this feels like it is missing something. There are interesting elements, but it still feels like we are lacking a key piece to tie this together.

Now as I delve a bit deeper, I do need to reveal something. My own notions of what I thought we would get here influenced me having issues. I thought this would be a creature feature. It isn't. It is more about the mystery. There is a curse here. Monique knows things are off and she isn't giving the truth as to what is happening. I'm intrigued by that as it feels like it borrows from The Turn of the Screw. That is where I mean that it something we've seen before. Instead of ghosts and having our governess descend into madness, she goes about uncovering the truth. It could be the print that I'm seeing is missing that section and if there was a cut that I could watch to fill in that gap, I'm there. I won't hold against the product what I wanted, but I needed more with what I got.

Even though with what I said, I do have an issue with the mad scientist thread not going somewhere. We know there is this curse over the area. There could be a werewolf. Reginald is doing experiments with cell regeneration. This all draws my interest. The problem though is that I don't feel this gets resolved. There is a reveal near the end, but it was something that didn't move my interest enough to care. This was a bit too much of a slow burn for my liking.

What was fine though was the acting. I thought that Sologne does well as this inquisitive character. She does something with getting into the laboratory that I don't know if I fully buy. There doesn't feel like enough time for her to investigate enough information to discover the truth and even if she did, she would be found. It felt contrived to move the story and to build suspense. Renoir was fine as this 'mad scientist' of sorts. The best performance though was Dorziat. She is so mean to everyone that it worked since she is 'nobility'. Marsay, Louis Salou, Furet, Jo Dervo, Bijou, Olinska, Géniat and the rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed. Interestingly as well, Olinska is Bijou's real-life mother. The former was only in this and her daughter took on two projects.

All that is left then would be with filmmaking. I do think that the cinematography here is good. I love the castle setting. That adds an almost gothic atmosphere without fully leaning into it. The shots of the area work to showcase the isolation. We don't get much in the way of effects. What they use comes with the sound. There is the storm raging the first night. I also believe we got wolf howling which is fitting. I'd say that this is made well enough overall.

In conclusion, I think that this has good elements for its foundation. The idea of this curse over the area and the family that share the same name is solid. Even going with a bit of mad scientist is another aspect that I can work with. The acting works as well. Dorziat being the strongest, I also thought that Sologne and Renoir were good. Bijou is adorable. This is even made well enough. The cinematography is gorgeous and the setting is good. My problem is that it is too slow. It feels like it could be missing an element for it to fully connect. Not one I can fully recommend as to what I saw.

My Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

In this curio from France, we find a young woman, Madeline Sologne ("The Eternal Return" (1943)), taking a position as governess to a small girl at a mysterious chateau (à la "Jane Eyre"). The chateau belongs to the Malveneur family; a family whose reputed to be cursed by a wolf (à la the canine in "The Hound of the Baskervilles"). Pierre Renoir plays Reginald de Malveneur -- the last of the Malveneurs. He disappears one night and, thereafter, strange music is heard coming from the locked cellar.

Sologne and handsome French actor Michel Marsay try to solve the mystery. Marsay's Latin good looks are a welcome change from the gloom at the old, menacing chateau. He should have became a major star in France. My print from Sinister Cinema runs 79 minutes. It seems intact. A film worth seeking out, possibly, as an agreeable appetizer to a marvelous entrée, Jean Cocteau's beautiful and frightning "Beauty and the Beast" (1946). If you want a haunting French film double feature night, here are two films that should satisfyingly fit the bill.

Another movie of the Occupation days.There are harsh words said of this film ,although it retains a small cult among horror and fantasy buffs.First of all ,it's an escapism movie,like so many others in occupied country: "Les Visiteurs du Soir" ,although it did include veiled hints at the country's plight ,was an escapism movie;so was "L'Eternel Retour" which also featured Madeleine Sologne.

Hindsight displays a certain charm:the director is not Marcel Carné or Jean Delannoy/Jean Cocteau ,but he can create an atmosphere.He is abetted by a good cast .More than the young leads ( Madeleine Sologne and Michel Marsay,whose career was short-lived),it's the old guard who saves the film:Gabrielle Dorziat is as excellent as ever,Pierre REnoir is sinister-looking,Marcelle Géniat is no longer the nice old lady but a deaf and dumb disturbing servant.

There's a curse on the Malveneur family.There's a black legend which tells that one of their ancestors sold his soul to the devil and he was cursed: man by day ,wolf by night.These doomed aristocrats were hunters ,hence their name (Malveneur = evil venerer).But it also rhymes with "Malheur" (=misfortune).

The Last of the Malveneur is a scientist who carries out strange experiments on ...nobody knows exactly what the does in the subterranean.Up comes a governess who 's got to take care of the master's daughter.The wife has a heart condition ,her sister-in-law is a masculine authoritarian lady .And nights in the old castle are not exactly peaceful.

Based on Conan Doyle's "Hound Of Baskerville pattern,the script lacks focus and the writers can spare 2 or 3 contradictions:for instance,the Malveneur are outcast,they must not be buried in the cemetery ,a consecrated place;however they (or at least the sister-in-law and her niece) go to church on Sunday! There's a laudable attempt to link the legend with the last of the Malveneur's fate and ,all in all,it's not that much bad after all.

I only just heard of this one but was intrigued enough to acquire it – and watch the film – immediately (though my copy ran 79 minutes against IMDb's listing of 99)! Early French horror fare has generally been the prerogative of the Art-house circuit and this is no exception, being one of a handful of titles along fantastic lines to emerge from the country during WWII. As a werewolf picture, this has obviously been likened to THE WOLF MAN (1941) but it actually owes more to Fox's own off-shoot of that one, THE UNDYING MONSTER (1942) – especially since it similarly deals with a family curse, whereas the affliction of Lawrence Talbot in the Universal prototype was newly-inflicted.

Unsurprisingly, then, not only is there no actual monster – being a normal-sized animal when it finally appears (though boasting a peculiar symbiosis with the current head of the titular clan, since he and the 'beast' expire simultaneously!) – but all the wolf scenes (apart from the odd night-time howling) are relegated to the chase finale! Even so, we get a scientist (played by the brother, Pierre, of the great film director Jean Renoir) expounding his mad credo during the last reel, the family itself is not allowed to be interred in consecrated ground (but some of its members are still shown, for no very good reason, attending normal church functions!), the whole is set inside a spooky but splendid-looking castle (eventually destroyed in a fire, that stock purifying agent of cinematic evil!), a vaguely eerie tune (dubbed "The Forgotten Waltz") keeps cropping up throughout, the doctor's wife has a heart condition (which he was endeavoring to cure and to which she naturally succumbs before long), the maidservant is a suspicious-looking deaf-mute (interestingly, this disability is made the butt of jokes a' la another Universal horror classic – James Whale's sublime THE OLD DARK HOUSE {1932} and, as it happens, my own all-time favorite film!), the villagers are typically reticent to approach the property (though they unaccountably turn up in droves at the climax, despite this occurring at night, as if they were just hanging about off-screen!), etc.

With this in mind, the film contrives to evoke both the standard Universal style (down to having the credits shrouded in mist) and the singular mood (created by being partly shot through a gauze) of Carl Theodor Dreyer's VAMPYR (1931): this intriguing blend is perhaps most striking during a burial sequence, rendered all the more unreal by Expressionistically-tilted crosses. Still, apart from the flaws already mentioned, the obscure director's inexperience is evidenced by the fact that much of the running-time is devoted to the romantic interest (between a newly-arrived nanny, charged with taking care of the doctor's little girl, and a persistent young painter – himself an outsider but who takes a vivid interest in and seems more knowledgeable about what is going on than most in the region!). The latter's true identity is only revealed at the very end, and yet another mystery element involves the disappearance of Renoir's character and the estate gamekeeper early on – blurring the established notion, i.e. one of the Malveneurs, of who the monster is (since any man can be driven to commit unspeakable crimes through the misuse of Modern Science!).

While the acting is thoroughly professional, the honors clearly go to Renoir (in spite of the brevity of his appearance) and Jean Cocteau alumnus Gabrielle Dorziat, here playing his rather masculine sister. Incidentally, since the Malveneurs never looked favorably upon the female of the species, it is ironic to note that the castle ends up being populated by women alone (save for an idiotic manservant), as indeed are the last two members in the family line (the unmarried Dorziat herself and the now-orphaned child)!