Henri Decoin's next-to last work,it was the second time he had tackled the war movie after "La Chatte" ,about a resistant woman in WW2 and its sequel :although thoroughly implausible ,the movie possessed appeal because of the director's flair for film noir and Françoise Arnoul 's sensuality.
" Parias De La Gloire " found the director drained of energy .Even his expertise ,which gave great Films Noirs in the forties and in the fifties, is at question: the ridiculous prologue,and Curd Jurgends 's ludicrous past flashbacks while pop singer (here featured as a Chinese) Tiny Yong is strumming her strings while singing a monotonous chant ,it's unworthy of a past master.
Ferrier's brother was killed in WW2 ,and since he has taken a violent dislike to German people.He is now fighting in Indochina circa 1947,in a small post in the "Plaine Des Joncs " ,exposed to Viet rebels' attacks who stop the convoys .A plane is shot down and the pilot takes refuge in the post .He was working in a plantation,and he's a German,Ludwig Goetz .In Ferrier's mind he 's still an enemy.However,when a soldier becomes ill ,it's this "Fritz" who volunteers for fetching medicines.
The movie was probably intended to illustrate and celebrate the French/German reconciliation ,general De Gaulle's and Konrad Adenauer's work
(1963).But didacticism is rampant ,and as soon as Ludwig appears ,the story becomes so predictable that it has nothing in store for the viewer ;even the implausible "unexpected twist" (it's precisely Ludwig ,who,in WW2,in the village of Bligny....),you could see it coming from a mile off.
A cosmopolitan cast ,Italian Folco Lulli ,French Maurice Ronet and Roland Lesaffre and German Curd Jurgens ,whose French is as perfect as ever could not save this simplistic story ,the purpose of which was to edify the French (and the German) people ;yes,at a time when the resentment was still present on both sides of the Rhine ,such a burning subject had to be filmed : but not like a bull in a China shop.
In the sixties ,Decoin 's career had become more unfocused than never ;his admirers might choose "Maléfices "(1962),and pass "pariahs" up.
