Il vizio e la notte

When the middle-aged police inspector Georges Vallois (Jean Gabin) is assigned to investigate the murder case of a drug dealer, the suspect is his addicted mistress Lucky Fridel (Nadja Tiller). But soon Vallois and Lucky have a love affair and he believes she is innocent and needs rehab.

"Le désordre et la nuit", a.k.a. "The Night Affair", is a different film-noir. The storyline shows a dirty tale with an old police inspector having an affair with a junkie woman that could be his daughter and manipulating the events in the end to present the best solution for the case. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Vício Maldito" ("Damned Addiction")

I would be surprised were Gilles Grangier to be in anyone's pantheon of great directors but Jean Gabin liked him enough to make no less that twelve films with him. Their collaborations in the sixties do not alas amount to much but their films of the fifties are of great interest, notably 'Sang a la Tete' and this policier, adapted from his own novel by Jacques Robert with splendid dialogue by the ubiquitous Michel Audiard.

The human touch, so often lacking in hard-boiled films of this type, is supplied by Jean Gabin's 'straight and narrow cop' and Nadja Tiller's 'junkie'. It is their relationship that holds the film together. Although her character admits to being twenty-three, Fraulein Tiller is in fact nearer thirty here but there is still a twenty-five year difference in age between her and Monsieur Gabin. This does not seem to matter as he is well-tailored, keeps his clothes on, the lighting is subtle and they have a definite simpatico. Gabin again gets away with it the following year in the excellent 'En Cas de Malheur' with an even younger Brigitte Bardot. Despite their rather gruff and blokish demeanor both Gabin and his natural successor Lino Ventura had a distinct chemistry with their leading ladies.

One of Gabin's favourite cinematographers Louis Page is again on duty here. The music is jazzy and might 'perhaps' have been influenced by Miles Davis' ground breaking score to 'L'Ascenseur pour L'Echafaud' released the same year.

There is also the presence of talented jazz pianist/vocalist Hazel Scott in what I believe is her only French film following her unfortunate departure from America. For those who have an interest I would strongly recommend the television documentary entitled, rather appropriately, 'Whatever happened to Hazel Scott?'

One must not forget, in fact one can never forget, the divine Danielle Darrieux. Her performance transcends what is, on paper anyway, a 'minor' role.

Policiers were becoming noticeably more hard-hitting during this period and despite containing elements which are bound to occasion a few 'tut-tuts' from the PC brigade, this one has certainly stood the test of time.

The owner of a Parisian night club is murdered, and Inspecteur Jean Gabin is assigned to the case. His investigation starts with the dead man's mistress, Nadja Tiller, with whom he begins an affair.

Although the movie seems set up for shock value, Gabin moves through it with his usual natural facility. The jazz credentials are impeccable, with a ten-minute opening sequence and Hazel Scott playing the piano, but it soon settles down into a mess where Fraulein Tiller seems to be moving into self-destruction. The cast includes Danielle Darrieux, Robert Manuel, and in tiny bits, Jean-Pierre Cassell and Jacques Marin.

They form a couple that you don't forget: Inspector Georges Vallois (Jean Gabin) and Lucky Fridel (Nadja Tiller), the latter being a former miss Austria. Her beauty and her charm change the mind of the inspector and turn him away from his duties. There is a game of attraction and repulsion between both as never seen in French cinema. He could be her father. There is a scene where Vallois answers tho her father that she could end up in prostitution if her father does not give her money anymore. Does Valois feel pity for her? The novel by Jacques Robert inspired the experienced director Gilles Grangier to this movie with a peculiar ending. Also Thérèse Marken (Danielle Darieux) give the dialogues between her and Vallois a captivating tension. Vallois is a bit Maigret-like but he has his own touch and is more human. It is also remarkable that the writer Jacques Robert adapted later a novel of Georges Simenon for the screen (Maigret voit rouge). This movie has kept all its freshness after those years but the problem of junkies has still grown more.

Jean Gabin is not playing Inspecteur Maigret here, but he is a detective investigating the murder of a night club owner who also deals heroin. Nadja Tiller plays a glamourous habituee of the club who falls for Gabin; she is also a junkie. Her scene of withdrawal is far from the gritty reality, she just seems to have a hangover and sweats a bit.

I was impressed with Hazel Scott in a small part as the club's pianist-singer. This Barbadian-born performer married Adam Clayton Powell and had to leave the US in the Fifties because of her leftist politics. She was played by Vanessa L. Williams in a recent made for TV movie. On the basis of this small part, she could have had a career like Dorothy Dandridge's.