From the celebrated novel by Jean Richepin." ,the cast and credits claim.
Fame changes at an amazing pace ; the popularity of a writer like Jean Richepin can appear and disappear in a matter of decades;who still reads "la glu" today?
And famous ,the novel was , for this is its third version , after two silent movies .
Jean Choux's filmography seems more appreciated abroad than in his native land (notably ,the silent film "la vocation d'andré Carel" ) .If one can save "un chien qui rapporte " , because of Arletty and at a pinch "port d'attache", which was pure Vichy ideology but did not suffer too much for it , what can one say of, for instance ,"paix sur le Rhin " with Françoise Rosay dressed up in an Alsatian costume ?"Angelica" with Viviane Romance as a femme fatale among the guerilleros?
The same goes for charming Odette Joyeux ,in her folk costume, whose only role is to long for Marie-Pierre ( generally a female first name,) , in love and in awe of jeune premier Gilbert Gil ; the main interest is the cast that also gathers generally brilliant Marcelle Géniat, Gaby Morlay (whose part is insignificant) ,comédienne française Marie Bell, Alfred Adam and Jacques Baumer. But they are left to their own devices ;Georges Bever ,whose songs are supposed to provide the movie with a Greek choir of sorts ,is awfully dubbed : even a French can't get the words .
The story is a trite melodrama , with some whodunit thrown in in the last fifteen minutes: the femme fatale's motto is " qui s'y frotte s'y pique " ,echoing Marlene Dietrich's "men swarm around me like moths around the flame and if their wings get singed ,I'm not to blame" in "das blaue Engel" .But Choux is not Sternberg by a long shot ; filmed in Clichy studios and on location in Le Croisic, the film ,except for the first sequence when Mater dolorosa Marie-des-Anges prays Virgin Mary to spare his only one ("my husband and my two older sons were lost at sea) ,does not take advantage of the Britton landscapes :sometimes the skyline disappears and pointless close shots appear ,one wonders why.
