L'étrange Monsieur Steve

"Strange Mister Steve" is a good surprise in French film noir, far from perfect, but with fascinating itinerary of Georges Villard (Philippe Lemaire) from innocent employee to independant crook written by Frédéric Dard. I appreciated Armand Mestral playing Steve, the dandy crook capturing Villard in his trap with the help of tender Jeanne Moreau and Lino Ventura being at the opposite threatening (he was also violent in "Action immédiate" and "Sursis pour un vivant"). In the hands of Julien Duvivier, Henri Decoin, Clouzot, Jean Delannnoy,... it could have been better with more precise details. But it's still entertaining.

Jeanne Moreau had to wait a while for the films we remember her by. This turgid film, dully directed concerns a green as grass young man who is ( platonically ) seduced by a certain Monsieur Steve, and laughingly it looks at first like a gay pickup, with restaurant dates etc. But green as grass is not wanted for his handsome looks but his gift of being essentially stupid. Philippe Lemaire plays the role as if on Valium and Jeanne Moreau, Monsieur Steve's wife has the dreary job of sexually arousing him. I kid you not but with this cliched material she shows the promise of things to come in her career. She could make a telephone book of the time interesting, and hey presto she reads it from A to Z in this scenario. The music is dreadful and the 1957 depiction of Paris is banal to say the least. Of course there is a bank robbery and green as grass is shot by the men who set him up. Not fatally, but enough to have 2 operations. Not learning his lesson that he is being used he gets involved in another heist, and well, the ending pretends to be Film Noir, and the lesson of it all is that stupid young men should not accept expensive restaurant dates with dubious older men. There is a price to pay but poor green as grass does not see his fate coming. I did a mile off, and a 2 for Jeanne Moreau who to her credit looks as if she is seeing Louis Malle and his ' Lift to the Scaffold ' in the distance.