The lawyer is not far away now...
One more movie and Cayatte would broach his "championing the good causes" long period (from 1950 to the end of his career in the early eighties with few exceptions: "Le Miroir à Deux Faces " Nip and Tuck of the fifties and a Hitchcockesque "Piège Pour Cendrillon" ):child abduction,euthanasia,miscarriages of justice,death penalty,corrupt judges,even eye for an eye ,tooth for a tooth ("Oeil pour Oeil" was one of his titles.
His fin de decade movies predate the long series which began with "Justice est Faite" in 1950;Old melodrama "Roger la Honte" was nothing but a miscarriage of justice;and "Les Amants de Verone" ,which is considered his best film ,featured a "trial" and a judge who kept in a box all the last cigarette butts of the people he had sentenced to death.
Like in "Les Amants de Verone" ,the star is Serge Reggiani.Although it is primarily a detective story ,with a trick (the ice) Agatha Christie would not disown,there are elements which predate the impending "justice for all" era : the corrupt cop who is not afraid to have an innocent arrested ,hints at "relations with some politicians " which the dead crook would have had.All that takes a back seat to the thriller side though.Madeleine Sologne and her lover Paul Meurisse are eager to get the money of her late husband's life insurance;alas it does not work if it's a suicide .So it can be a murder provided there is a culprit.
His fin de decade movies predate the long series which began with "Justice est Faite" in 1950;Old melodrama "Roger la Honte" was nothing but a miscarriage of justice;and "Les Amants de Verone" ,which is considered his best film ,featured a "trial" and a judge who kept in a box all the last cigarette butts of the people he had sentenced to death.
Like in "Les Amants de Verone" ,the star is Serge Reggiani.Although it is primarily a detective story ,with a trick (the ice) Agatha Christie would not disown,there are elements which predate the impending "justice for all" era : the corrupt cop who is not afraid to have an innocent arrested ,hints at "relations with some politicians " which the dead crook would have had.All that takes a back seat to the thriller side though.Madeleine Sologne and her lover Paul Meurisse are eager to get the money of her late husband's life insurance;alas it does not work if it's a suicide .So it can be a murder provided there is a culprit.
- dbdumonteil
- Feb 23, 2008