La casa di Madame Kora

Yves Allegret is noted for a handful of fine films and this one should fall into that category of excellence. Perhaps due to its controversy in France in 1957 it has somehow disappeared. Robert Hossein has just got out of prison and he wants to be top man of a ring of gangsters. He murders both one of the top men who has replaced him and his wife and Antonella Lualdi ( excellent in her role ) sees him disappear from the scene of the crime. She tells the wrong man, one of the gangsters waiting for Hossein, that she could recognise him. She is mugged, bundled into a waiting car and held hostage in a Paris brothel. Alain Saury who plays her wastrel of a husband returns to their apartment and finding her gone is instrumental in attempting to bring the gang down. This is typical James Hadley Chase territory and the film is based on his novel ' Miss Callahan Comes to Grief ' which was initially banned in the UK as this version of his novel was initially banned in France. There is a lot of brutality in the film, and perhaps Lualdi's graphic attempt at suicide was the cause of the controversy. I can see no other. It is a relatively short film that does not let up in pace, and uses its underworld Paris of the 1950's very realistically. It is also at times deeply moving and the childish nature of the gangsters is shown by Hossein's love of train sets, and like a child he loves to play with them. No spoilers but the toy train symbolically shows how life in this gangster world reaches its terminus, and Allegret shows this brilliantly. Shown on television to my knowledge the film has not been released on DVD, It is not too late to rectify that.

After a brilliant period,which spawned some of the best works of the post -war era ("Dédée D'Anvers"," Une Si Jolie Petite Plage" ,the very noir " Manèges" ,arguably his towering achievement),Allégret fell quickly.After "Les Orgueilleux" ,his last valuable effort,all that he produced was mediocre at best ,abysmal at worst.

This one falls in the second category :good actors totally wasted (Robert Hossein,a prince of French film noir,and Italian beauty Antonella Lualdi) Based on a James Hadley chase 's novel ,it is a patchy inconsistent story of gangsters war ,hookers ,desperately trying to sound American ,but failing totally to convince.