Os Malditos

(1947) Les Maudits/ The Damned (In French with English subtitles) WAR DRAMA

Co-written and directed by René Clément, with the setting takes place just during the end of the second World War, with a U-boat full of Nazi sympathizers, including French and Italian passengers planning to settle in South America for a possible industrialization to support Hitler's cause. All is well until one of the female passengers injures herself with a bad head concussion, forcing them to go undercover to kidnap a French doctor, who eventually takes over to narrate his incredible voyage. Sometimes slow, but still fascinating that has never been done before.

This is director René Clément's third full-length film and already we are aware that he is a great 'film technician' with an eye for detail.

It takes place in a German U-471, a wooden replica of which Clément had built at the Victorine studios. His production designer, Paul Bertrand, has done a wonderful job in recreating the interior and the tracking shots through the vessel by Henri Alekan are impressive. Apparently Clément installed a tilting mechanism to reproduce as much as possible the movements of the submarine.

Essentially dealing with the wages of political sin, the characters almost without exception are a thoroughly unsavoury and ignoble bunch with no redeeming features which naturally makes them horribly fascinating. The only decent character is the doctor of Henri Vidal and therefore infinitely less interesting! I have no doubt that Paul Bernard, Jo Dest and Florence Marly enjoyed their roles immensely. Marcel Dalio gets top billing here and plays 'une crapule' with his usual aplomb.

The film is not without its weaknesses. The punch-ups on board are far from convincing and the various deaths of the protagonists are handled in a very cold, clinical manner. An undeniable strength is the dialogue by renowned Henri Jeanson.

Clément's powerful first feature 'La Bataille du Rail' was filmed in a semi-documentary style whilst this one seems to fall between two stools, those of fact and fiction, with varying results.

This director made fifteen films in twenty-five years a few of which are undisputed masterpieces. 'Les Maudits' is alas not one of them but did in fact beat off some pretty stiff competition to win Best Film at Cannes. Devotees of 'Psycho' please note the scene where a murdered man pulls down the curtain rail from the rod!

Les maudits is directed by René Clément who also co-writes with Victor Alexandrov, Henri Jeanson, Jacques Rémy and Jacques Companéez. It stars Marcel Dalio, Henri Vidal, Florence Marly, Fosco Giachetti, Paul Bernard, Jo Dest, Michel Auclair and Anne Campion.

It's the last days of World War II and a submarine full of Nazi's and fellow collaborators head off from Oslo bound for South America. Hoping to evade capture by the Allies, their plans are stalled when a depth- charge attack injures one of the lady passengers causing them to stop off in France to kidnap a doctor. Once on board the doctor realises the gravity of his situation and uses his medical knowledge to spread slow- burn fret throughout the submarine; just as news of the armistice breaks…

A lesson in claustrophobic suspense and slow-burn psychological edginess, Les maudits riff's on the rats leaving a sinking ship with considerable success. It's a hot-bed of unsavoury characters, where political sin hangs heavy in the scratchy black and white atmosphere. Clément inserts the tension deftly whilst also garnering rich performances from the multilingual ensemble of actors. It all builds to a quite terrific ending that closes down the picture on suitably intelligent note.

It's a hard film to pin down but if you get the chance don't hesitate to view it. 8/10

I give this film five stars although I would rather have given it one star, because of the other reviews posted here. I cannot say for sure that this is René Clement's weakest film but it is by far not his best and it is the weakest I can remember to have seen. It contains the typical Nazi stereotypes that were maybe true, I don't know, but nevertheless boring. Had the Nazis all have been such idiots they could hardly have lasted six years in a war against practically the whole world. True, they were first supported by the west to scare off the Bolsheviks but later on they were pretty much alone against the whole world. When it came out maybe there were not that many films about Nazi stereotypes and so it must have seemed better thenö but I review the film from the impact it could have to day and in that lite it is at best vaguely interesting but on no account whatsoever comparable with Les yeux interdit, for example. I just went through the list of Clements films and of the ones I've seen, this is indeed his weakest.

French war drama by Rene Clement

This film is really a surprise! Rene Clement, who a decade later filmed a Tom Ripley novel by Patricia Highsmith for the first time with Alain Delon in the leading role of "Plein soleil" (1959), presents here a wonderfully nasty war thriller that is incredibly exciting .

In the final days of the Second World War, a submarine sets sail from Oslo carrying a number of extremely disgusting Nazis from Germany and Nazi sympathizers from other countries. All these miserable people want to escape to South America to escape the impending defeat. Deluded as they all are, this mishmash actually forgot to bring a doctor on board. But they need it after the little accident involving a mild-mannered full-blooded fascist (Florence Marly). Without further ado, you go ashore in Rovan, France, and kidnap the local country doctor (Henri Vidal (1919-1959), who, shortly before his untimely death, was with Romy Schneider in "Ein Engel auf Erden" and Brigitte Bardot in "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" was visible) on the submarine. And we continue towards South America so that the drama can continue.

This short description of the starting point makes it clear what is so unusual and exciting about this film. Most of the scenes take place in the confines of a submarine, creating a setting that is very reminiscent of "Das Boot" (1981) by Wolfgang Petersen and does not need to shy away from this comparison. The film is basically narrated by the kidnapped country doctor, which gives a special and initially unusual perspective. French and German are spoken, which of course fits perfectly with the characters in the story. In addition, the characters are so unpleasant and their actions are so disturbing that the viewer is simply surprised. This film dares to focus on extreme monsters as anti-heroes. Even the country doctor as the only identification figure is not a shining hero, but rather someone who is placed in a hopeless situation and has to struggle to defend himself.

The actors in this film are terrific. The characters they portray form an impressive collection of Nazi abominations: there is the ardent fascist who is linked to both an Italian entrepreneur and a German general, an informant, a scientist, all of whom supposedly believe in final victory. But the most disgusting and impressive are the SS man Forster (Jo Dest) and his "adjutant" Willi Morus (great: Michel Auclair, who later also appeared in "Funny Face" (1957) by Stanley Donen and "Days of the Jackal" (1973). By Fred Zinneman), which are linked by an ambivalent sado-masochistic connection, which is truly remarkable for a film from this period.

This film is a little pearl with breathtaking scenes that should definitely be discovered. Highly recommended!