Le fond de la bouteille

A rich rancher and lawyer has to accommodate his on-the-run brother who has escaped from a prison. Joseph Cotten has had better parts to play than this one, although it isn't too bad. A lot of the best scenes are in his ranch house, which with the set decorations and DeLuxe color looks really great. As well is a get together that occurs at another ranch house which looks equally cool. There's a lot of drinking going on and talking about drinking, but Van Johnson, who's supposed to be the alcoholic brother on the lam from Joliet for killing someone in a bar fight doesn't have a part that captures the essence of alcoholism very effectively. In the end his part is not believable. Jack Carson, however, who plays Cotten's neighbor on the next ranch over, is great as the movie heads into a manhunt for Johnson, with Carson leading a posse. The central story of Cotten and Johnson as two brothers who overcome their differences has been done so many times that it isn't much of a story. Ruth Roman, as Cotten's wife is OK though her sexual frustration with Cotten (they sleep in separate rooms and have been doing so for a long time) is also not believable. If she had started something with Johnson, this film would have been launched into another orbit. As it is, it's burdened by predictability with only the cool sets, DeLuxe color, and Carson to save it.

Usually Van Johnson is cast as a nice guy next door, the kid from just around the block who just happens to be around when everybody wants to dance--and in many ways, he was the happy simpleton to June Allyson's perky plans, or played off Esther Williams by just being nice and attractive in a chubby way. Here, Johnson earns his chops as an escaped convict with a severe drinking problem who runs to his brother for help only to meet the same brick wall the two of them built growing up. The brother, played coldly by stolid Joseph Cotten, is a wealthy rancher, but has problems of his own, having married for reasons never quite made clear, but mired in a long-time childless relationship with svelte, intelligent Ruth Roman, here, as in so many films, holding an anchor on some out of control emotions. Except for what I felt was an unnecessarily saccharin final five minutes, the plot zips with some intensity along the Mexican-American border, and the assured direction of veteran Henry Hathaway assures the viewer of a Cain-Abel story with modern ranch trimmings. Johnson, who passed away in 2008, could always be relied upon to be an easy leading man in musicals, from Two Girls and A Sailor, In The Good Old Summertime (with Judy Garland), but also served well in wartime dramas Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Caine Mutiny; in this film, however, Johnson stretched his talents beyond the usual and turned in his most distinctive role.

This one looks like it's almost lost in the mists of cinematic antiquity, since it doesn't appear to be available on video in a widescreen DVD. About the only place to catch it is on the FOX MOVIE CHANNEL, which occasionally hauls it out of the vaults for a letterboxed showing(e.g., currently during the month of June 2005).

Henry Hathaway was a particularly congenial director when it came to using the CinemaScope frame effectively and his cinematographer on this one, Lee Garmes, did some effectively moody work on the interiors and some first-class use of the exterior locations, as well, including what looked like a sequence that was difficult to shoot - at night in inclement weather on a river bank with floodwaters raging. Joseph Cotten, in a fairly unsympathetic role, led the cast, along with Ruth Roman as his wife. Also among the thespians were Jack Carson and Van Johnson, who was, not for the first time, quite convincing as a man whose addiction to alcohol was a primary focus of the fairly sardonic script by Sydney Boehm. One thing that sticks in my mind, so many years after seeing this film on a theater screen during its first release, is the fact that Peggy Knudsen, playing a rich married woman of the contemporary American southwest, is seen behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz 300SL "gullwing" roadster, one of the most desirable upscale cars of that era and an unimpeachable choice to display her character's privileged status.

A wonderful body of work. Saw it many years ago on AMC, but has not been shown since. I continue to look with the hopes that any video company would discover this gem and make it available.

Great display of location shooting and the work of the entire cast represent them at their finest.

Van Johnson has never been better, and Joseph Cotten holds on admirably to generate the contrast between the brothers. Ruth Roman,a stalwart of the profession, should have a festival somewhere dedicated to her work. I would definitely attend. I highly recommend one and all to search for this film, and I am happy that there are others who feel the way I do about this body of work.

"Le Fond De La Bouteille" is based on a true story ;Georges Simenon remembered his own past:he was the one who made it big whereas his brother Christian ,his mum's favorite ,was a washout,someone who always failed.Like the movie,the novel takes place on the Mexican border and that's why ,unlike other Simenon American adaptations ("The man on the Eiffel Tower ") it was successful because it' s hard for an American director to recreate the Parisian atmosphere.

And of course there is Henry Hathaway !When will they give this great director the place he deserves?I have seen many of his movies,some are among my favorites ("Peter Ibbetson" "lives of a Bengal Lancer" "Niagara").

Joseph Cotten was ideally cast as the "good " "Abel-like" brother ;and who could play his fallen brother but Van Johnson?Ruth Roman is less cold than usually :the actress is believable as a -apparently- frivolous party woman who helps her husband discover forgiveness and compassion.Hathaway makes a good use of the wide screen ,particularly in the scenes on the river -which recall those of "Niagara" which Cotten's presence reinforces.He also strikingly contrasts the luxury house and the seedy room Mildred and her children pack into.

Georges Simenon spent a part of his life not far from the Mexican border;his book was probably a catharsis.