L'assassinat du Père Noël

We get a good look at a small village in Savoie for an hour before Father Christmas is found dead. This gives us a chance to look at all the suspects: the local Prince, Raymond Rouleau, returned after ten years' absence, suffering from leprosy which has already blighted his hand; the local globemaker who has gone from home to home as Father Christmas for three decades, the inimitable Harry Baur; his dreamy daughter, Renée Faure; her suitor, schoolteacher Robert Le Vigan; crazy Marie-Hélène Dasté, who has been searching for her cat forever; the kindly pharmaicst Jean Brochard; and the children, who believe in Father Christmas and depend on the gifts he brings. There's also a diamond stolen from the church, worth more than the entire village. All this happens before Father Christmas is found dead, and then strange things happen.

Will the murderer be found? Will the diamond be returned? Will the children get their presents? All of these are of equal importance, because despite the mystery at the center of the story, all good murder mysteries are about the restoration of moral order to the universe, and this is a charming little village filled with people who care about each other. It is only the solution that can restore that order.

Because this is the first film produced by Continental Films, the production company set up by the occupying Germans, there is a tendency to look on it as German propaganda. In fact, the remit of the company was to produce pure entertainment, and that is what we have here. With excellent actors under the direction of solidly commercial director Christian-Jaque.

Although some actors are a little too 'pushy' on the drama side, the camera shots are excellent. Harry Baur is indeed excellent, along with Raymond Rouleau and Fernand Ledoux. While Renée Faure, M-H Dasté and Le Vigan's performance are a little "too much" for my taste and the genre of the movie. The "over-doing" breaks the pace of the movie.

The early version of the French Santa Claus (Père Noël) is very charming.

Made under German occupied France in 1941, I find this movie remarkably done. Especially considering that the Gestapo tortured Harry Baur to death a couple years later.

Astonishingly enough, the children in the movie are performing quite well. The cameo from Bernard Blier is also memorable toward the end.

I recommend this movie to all French movie lovers, now available on DVD under the "René Château" label. PAL, Zone 2, if your player can accept it.

This was the first film that the Nazis allowed to be made in France after the occupation and installation of the Vichy government. Many denounced its director as a collaborator because he made a film sanctioned by the Nazis. But to the discerning eye, this unusual film does anything but cooperate with the enemy.

In its fairy-tale setting, the various characters appear as symbols in a constantly shifting allegory of good and evil. The literal-minded Nazi censors apparently didn't get the message, because any particular character might appear in one scene as a symbol of the collaborators, and in the next as a loyalist and supporter of resistance. Even as the symbolic alignments shifted too rapidly for the Nazis to detect them (much the way resistance fighters themselves often had to) the message of hope and patriotism and faith remained quite clear.

The story concerns an old globe-maker who is mysteriously killed while going through the town portraying Pere Noel ("Father Christmas" aka Santa Claus). The unraveling of the mystery is entwined with a love story concerning an aloof nobleman who might be a scoundrel, or might be Prince Charming. But the story is little more than a pretext for the message and the pervasive sense of magic that the film weaves.;

Of special note is the performance of Harry Baur, the famous Yiddish actor, as the Globemaker. His subtly Jewish Santa Claus is, in and of itself, a bold act of resistance. This was the next to last film Baur made. He was soon taken prison by the Nazis and reportedly died at the hands of the Gestapo.

I saw this film in 1980 when the Cinematheque Francaise sent a huge program of films to Los Angeles in collaboration with UCLA and The L.A. County Museum of Art. I do not know of it being shown in this country since. I have heard of an untranslated VHS of it being in existence, but I have been unable to find it. Do not miss this film if you are afforded a chance to see it.

This has the dubious distinction of being the first release of the infamous Continental Films and top-billed Harry Baur also has a distinction but one I feel sure he would have been happy to waive, that of being the first major French actor to be tortured to death by the Gestapo within months of shooting this fine movie. Baur was a veteran actor who made his first film in 1909 and was an early - if not actually the 'first' Maigret and he graced many (77 but who's counting) fine French films with his presence. Those who have seen Bertrand Tavernier's masterpiece 'Laissez-Passer' which was set in Paris and specifically featured Continental will take extra pleasure in seeing an actual product of the company (Douce is another that should not be missed). Pere Noel is now available on DVD and I have to say that the quality is excellent. Cynics may question a 'village' in the Savoy Alps that boasts chateaux like the one here in which we half expect to see Errol Flynn duelling with Basil Rathbone such is the scope and magnificence of its great stone-flagged floors with at least one fireplace as big as the White Horse Inn. I tend to agree with the viewer who stated that the plot is flimsy and is far outclassed by the atmosphere, which is terrific though again one may wonder how a globe-maker would make a living in a remote Alpine village. These things to one side the film is a joy and though It is very doubtful whether any of the fine actors - with the exception of Baur and Fernand Ledoux - would have been known outside France even in 1941 let alone today that is one more pleasure to savour, making the acquaintance of actors who were once only names in Reference Books. This is one I'll watch again.

Unlike the precedent user,I will not speak of the political background but of Christian-Jaque's intentions.It was obviously intended to match the brilliance of his former work "les disparus de Saint-Agil" (1938),the script of which having been written by Pierre Very too from his two novels.In both works two worlds coexist:the adults on one side,the children on the other."Les disparus de Saint-Agil",which was a small miracle in itself succeeded in perfectly blending the two worlds .In "l'assassinat du père noel' the two sides do not hang very well,the "grown-ups " and the "brats " plots go their separate ways and only a tenuous line desperately tries to connect them:Baur's daughter,dreaming of fair knights and Princes Charming of fairy tales ,an adult who's still a child.

The best is the atmosphere:the village surrounded by snow,where they gather for the feast of Xmas ,wrapped in mystery:a strange woman,searching for her cat-she will be searching for almost the entire film- ,a handsome baron who hides one of his hands in a glove (leprosy?),an anticlerical schoolteacher (almost a pleonasm in those years),a shady chemist ,and the gendarmes who cannot ,until the very end reach the isolated place where a Santa Claus has been killed.Besides ,a bedridden child is eagerly waiting for his father Xmas.

The movie is mainly worthwhile for its atmosphere;the detective plot is disappointing;the solution is given in about 2 minutes and it's very trite.Some of the yuletide charms are preserved though,and the last pictures finally connects the two stories ,albeit a bit artificially.