Mulher Perversa

The one and only teaming of Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich is this post World War II melodrama where Gabin plays the title role of Martin Roumagnac. Gabin is in the building trades and is a working class stiff. After the war guys like him were much in demand and he's on the way to a good living.

That is until he meets Dietrich who is playing one of her patented notorious women. He falls for her like a wheelbarrow full of his own bricks and goes way into cost overruns making her one grand villa. But she's marking time with him, he's a bit of amusement, Marlene's after the rich Marcel Herand whose shrew of a wife is lingering a bit too long on death's door to suit Dietrich and Herrand.

Gabin and Dietrich were quite an item over here during his exile period in America before he joined the Free French. Had Martin Roumagnac been better received Dietrich might well have set up permanent residence in France. No need to dub her, Dietrich's French was as fluent as her English. As it was eventually she did make Paris her home.

Some good performances to note are Jean d'Yd as Dietrich's uncle and Margo Lion as Gabin's sister. Blood relatives no nicknames involved for both. Also that of Daniel Gelin as a young student crushing out over her big time.

There's a lot of similarities with Martin Roumagnac and The Letter with the roles reversed. If you've seen either the Jeanne Eagels or Bette Davis versions than you know what happens in Martin Roumagnac.

The film came out in 1946 and didn't make it to our shores until 1948 because of the omnipresent Code. I think more than fans of the stars will appreciate it today.

..and if their wings burn ,I am not to blame. During the final trial,the lawyer quotes this famous song "falling in love again" ,a nod to the movie which made Marlene Dietrich a star ,"das Blaue Engel".

Four men flutter to her in "Martin Roumagnac":the hero (see the title )(Jean Gabin) ,a consul (Marcel Herrand) ,a man married to a shrew (Noël Roquevert) and a supervisor (Daniel Gelin,whose part is reduced to that of a deus ex machina).Actually the movie has a pre-war flavor.This nice fellow (here, a bricklayer),Jean Gabin played it a lot of times before (see Gremillon's "gueule d'amour" ,Carné's masterpiece "le jour se lève" )The sociological side -working class hero versus society man- is only skimmed over and Marlene Dietrich is miscast:how can we believe her part of a seeds woman?But there 's some humor and it mainly concerns the supporting cast:the postman is colorful and the scene when he gives evidence is great fun;Dietrich's uncle provides an excellent contrast with his niece.

SPOILER Georges Lacombe made two good films noirs :" le Dernier des Six" (1941) which owed a lot to Henri Georges Clouzot's adaptation of a Steeman novel and "la lumière d'en face"(1955) which enhanced Brigitte Bardot's sex appeal.His flair for film noir only shows up in the last scene of "Martin Roumagnac" ,the only one which is really potent:Martin has just been shot and his sister -who did not see the scene- says "your pals say you goodbye Martin" while a news paper falls on the ground :it announces "Roumagnac released" .Indeed.END OF SPOILER

Marlene Dietrich and Jean Gabin -who lived together at the time- were to be the stars of Marcel Carné's "les Portes de la Nuit" but finally they gave up -they were replaced by Yves Montand and Natalie Nattier ,which did no good to Carné's work,since his new actors were totally inexperienced- and made "Martin Roumagnac.They never teamed again afterward.

Here's a movie that was clearly produced on star power: Marlene Dietrich! Jean Gabin! She's a beautiful woman in small town, a "merry widow" with several beaux to her string, waiting for the rich, ugly wife of one of them to die so he'll marry her. She runs into Gabin, who's a construction contractor, and of course they fall in together, much to the audience's lack of surprise, and with many a shot of Marlene's legs. However, as her past and their present are revealed, there is anger and snarling and things go downhill, with lots of Gabin snarling and Dietrich to-hell-with-it shouting.

The director Georges Lacombe may be remembered as a director of early Clouzot scripts, but he started off as one of the Surrealists in Paris in the 1920s. By the end of the 1930s he was a thoroughly commercial director whose big-screen career petered out in the late 1950s, but who continued to direct made-for-TV movies into the 1970s. This move has a 1930s air to it; one would think the War had never happened.

Georges Lacombe makes a somewhat light interpretation of this social and psychological drama by Pierre-rené Wolf. The court at the end with its "avocat" and "ministère public" deliver us quite sensational dialogues and this second part of the movie is the most interesting; the end of the movie is anti-climax but is in the line of the Martin roumagnac and his adversary. Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich save the film for our memory but Marlene dietrich should have been more developed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the acting in this. Gabin is in good form as a decent contractor who gets mixed up with a tarty Dietrich. He keeps his star luster under control. Marcel Herrand as the oily consul de Laubry is impressive, just as he was as the thug in Les Enfants du Paradis. Jean d'Yd plays Dietrich's uncle as a shambling Monsieur Hulot figure; he's really wonderful to watch. His last scene testifying at the trial is very touching. Margo Lion plays Gabin's sister superbly; she'll be remembered after most of the story fades from memory.

Marlene Dietrich and her slow sensuous drawl--what can I say about her? I found her as convincing in French as she was in German and English. She's going to win your heart even as you deplore her lack of ethics. Finally, some excellent camera-work from Roger Hubert, who shot Les Enfants du Paradis and Les Visiteurs du soir for Carne.