Café de Paris

An user wrote that Mirande never set a toe in the studio and it's quite possible :his collaborator Georges Lacombe had a certain flair for film noir and his filmography includes several successful works in this field :"le dernier des six" ,"la lumière d'en face" and his best effort "le pays sans étoiles" ;besides ,both men co-directed another whodunit "derrière la façade "strictly based on the same pattern as "café de Paris" :the owner of an apartment building is slain ,and all the tenants are suspects.

In an enclosed place ,a luxury club called "Café de Paris ", the revelers have a good time on New Years' Eve ,but a hateful blackmailer is around here and many people have a reason to do away with him; at midnight,the lights go off ,and they break into ,not "auld lang syne" ,but into German Xmas (?) carol "mon beau sapin" (="O Tannenbaum "= "O Christmas tree); when the lights are on again, the nasty blackmailer has been stabbed and he's only got a few minutes to live .

The whodunit riddle doesn't begin to touch Agatha Christie's skill: proof positive,it's a journalist who names the culprit before the superintendent! But the atmosphere of the place,with the stooge promising to all his guests "the best table in the place" , the revelers oozing hatred ,contempt ,complacency, and hypocrisy , matters more than the trite investigation; many scathing lines,and some humor as the journalist dictates the latest news,"episode-by-episode."

How many directors had this film? It has been told --by Georges Lacombe himself-- that Yves Mirande never put a toe on the set. And we see Robert Vernay as technical adviser and writer too...

Anyhow, it's good, and most of the time very good.

The story is set as a classical whodunit in a closed room: it's New Year's eve, in a very posh and trendy café (Le Café de Paris, set in the 11th "arrondissement" of the French capital city). Big names are gathering there, and "poules de luxe" and other wannabees too, attracted by the light, the glamor and the perspective to make useful connexions.

One Lambert (Jacques Grétillat), press tycoon and feared black-mailer, is especially sought after. He arrives, short before midnight, his mistress with him. Many people around have already told all the evil they wished him, and among them some corrupted industrialists, an ambassador, journalists, a man who has been refused Lambert's daughter (Pierre Brasseur), an aristocratic go-between (Maurice Escandé)... and Lambert's own wife (Véra Korène), who is in the Café de Paris with her lover (Jules Berry) who doesn't know she is Lambert's wife.

Midnight, the light goes off (to permit each and everyone to kiss his/her partner)... and when the lights are on again, the horrified attendance discovers that Lambert has been stabbed to death.

Fortunately, there is a police superintendent (Jacques Baumer) already in the place.

One victim, one (and then three) inquirer... but so many possible murderers...

It's a treat. Many subplots are going on, all supported by brilliant and funny dialogs, among which the regular phone calls of a journalist (Carette) to his redaction, giving step by step the progress of the inquiry in an emphatic tone.

Most of the (very numerous) cast is at his best. Above all of them, Jules Berry, rather restrained here, hence more efficient than ever, and the rare and subtle Véra Korène, acting with a 'natural' rarely seen in those times.

Special mentions for Pierre Brasseur, Jacques Baumer, Carette, and Simone Berriau who is astonishing and excellent.

To me, it's the best of the movies signed by Yves Mirande. Try to catch it!

Didier_Fort at hotmail.com