En cas de malheur

I didn't expect much from this one, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Gabin plays very well, and Bardot manages to be uncomplicatedly sexy. Her character is smart but lacking formal education (much like Bardot herself, I've often felt), and she shows us she can burn up the screen. Pulling an armed robbery with an accomplice, then trying to seduce Gabin so that he'll agree to be her lawyer--she never turns a hair on her beautiful blonde head.

The two principals are surrounded by superb actors. Edwige Feuillere, after making L'Aigle a deux tetes and Le ble en herbe, had become the grande dame of French cinema (sort of what Meryl Streep is for us now) and here she is superb as the resourceful wife who is fairly sure she can deal with the threat posed by Bardot. Franco Interlenghi gives a deft performance as the young lover Mazetti--tough, a little vulgar, not willing to give Bardot up.

Autant-Lara had to make a concession to 50's morality when dealing with Yvette's sexuality. Simenon shows us she is bisexual and very easy with her affections with the maid Janine as well as with the two men in her life. On screen we see very little of this: the censors could be happy.

Gorgeous Brigitte Bardot is perfect as the mixed-up, spoiled young woman carrying on with an older attorney (Jean Gabin)who sets up her own fate. Mr. Gabin has always been a marvelous actor with a commanding presence at all times. Nice music and cinematography, but it's Ms. Bardot who makes it worthwhile. Beside her looks and sex appeal, her personality always shines through and she seems very comfortable on screen, even at a young age.

A 7 out of 10. Best performance = B. Bardot. You never quite knew where this film was going to end up, but it reaches a touching ending of closure for all concerned.

The film under review closes off nicely Claude Autant-Lara's impeccable 15-year run of noteworthy pictures that had begun with 1943's DOUCE (see my upcoming rave review); it is also notable for being an unlikely but fairly successful meeting between the biggest (Jean Gabin) and hottest (Brigitte Bardot) stars in French Cinema at the time i.e. just before the outbreak of the "Nouvelle Vague" brought along a horde of fresh and irreverent talent. Adapted from a Georges Simenon novel, the plot of EN CAS DE MALHEUR is quite predictable and not entirely convincing but the consummate professionalism of all concerned smooths over any bumps that come up along the way. Bardot is an aimless youth who, together with her reluctant girlfriend, amateurishly attempts to pull off a small-time jewel heist that, inevitably, goes wrong and, eventually, picks up Gabin's name at random from a phone book to act as her defense counsel in court; not having the financial means to pay for his services, she elects to remunerate him in the only way she knows how: seduction. Although this particular sequence, as shown in the finished film, is disappointingly chaste, the deleted clip reproduced at the end of the copy I acquired is, however, too crude to be seen at such an early stage of the film and, in my opinion, the director was wise to jettison it; in any case, he did contrive to gives us a good look at the gloriously naked body (solely from the back, of course) of the 23-year old Bardot later on when she rushes out of the bathroom and into bed (much to the chagrin of Gabin's mousy secretary) of the apartment that Gabin provided her with! Needless to say, Gabin is already married (to the formidable Edwige Feuilliere) and, although on the surface she appears to condone Gabin's latest flirtation, she is obviously none too happy about it. To complicate matters further, Bardot is also seeing her irascible Italian lover (Franco Interlenghi) on the side and things come to a tragic head when she unwisely decides that loveless wealth is preferable to blissful poverty. Abetted by Jacques Natteau's noir-ish lighting and Rene' Cloerec's fine score, the colorful cast also includes three alumni from the films of Luis Bunuel, namely Julien Bertheau (appearing briefly at the very end as the investigating inspector at the scene of the crime passionel), Jean-Pierre Cassel (unbilled as an animated trumpeter, one of Bardot's casual lovers) and an unrecognizable Bernard Musson – and even Jacques Marin and Daniela Bianchi (also unrecognizable). While the film's 122-minute running time would seem overgenerous on paper, it is only the belated (and unnecessary) introduction of the character of Bardot's maid that makes one realize this as we lay watching; I strongly suspect that the film-makers wanted to push the boundaries of censorship even further by hinting at a possible ménage-a-trois between her, Bardot and Gabin but, perhaps thankfully, this is not made all that clear in the few scenes they share together…which is just as well since the huge difference in age between on screen lovers Gabin and Bardot and the above-mentioned nude scene had already raised the proverbial conservative eyebrows! For the record, the film was remade 40 years later as EN PLEIN COEUR aka IN ALL INNOCENCE with Virginie Ledoyen stepping into Bardot's 'shoes'.

I have no doubt that every cinephile has his or her own favourite adaptation of the prolific Belgian novelist Georges Simenon. This is certainly one of mine. It is directed by Claude Autant-Lara whose last great film this was before his downward curve. Jean Gabin had long since ceased to play the underdog pursued by implacable fate and here gives a faultless performance as a well-heeled, world-weary and somewhat shady lawyer. Brigitte Bardot, in probably her best role, is the tantalising coquette with whom he becomes infatuated. Bardot herself was dismissive of most films in her career, understandably so, although I would be very surprised if this were one of them. The film is beautifully shot by Jacques Nattau with an excellent score by the director's favoured composer Rene Cloerec. Mention must be made of the divine Edwige Feuiliere, one of the greatest actresses of her generation. In one of her best film roles of the 1950's she is tremendous as the wife who turns a blind eye to her husband's peccadilloes. Her character's attitude typifies the thin dividing line between complacency and complicity. As one would expect from this director this is a well-crafted and deeply cynical piece about the frailties of human nature and is one of those films that really gets under the skin.

This one was a tough watch. I've always liked Jean Gabin. He always reminds me of Spencer Tracy, just a great, solid, likeable leading man. Bardot, on the other hand, I never much cared for. Sure she's great looking, but as an actress she somehow never really convinced me. She's in the opening scenes of En Cas de Malheur, and she immediately rubbed me the wrong way and the movie never really recovered. I could'nt get passed her as an actress to get to the character she was portraying. Gabin was solid as always, I liked the music and the lady who played his long-suffering wife. The two hour running time is a bit too generous for the interesting but often told tale the movie is offering us. I hoped for more.