Paris clandestin

A well made, fifties-style movie about the Paris criminal circuit at the time. It provides us with a not-too-exiting police-story, mainly set in the Pigalle night clubs and at a horseracing track. Actors and actresses with names like Jean Murat, Anouk Ferjac and Claudine Dupuis deliver their adequate performance.

In retrospect, the main attraction of 'Paris clandestin' lies in the well transmitted flavor of the Paris entertainment from 1957. Time has been taken to shoot night club scenes, as well as the performance of a couple of French 'chansons'. It's a world long gone by now, but its nostalgic charm and leisure show off convincingly.

"Paris clandestin " ,the title is a pun: it may mean "clandestine Paris" ,with its shady nightclubs; but if you add an s to the adjective ,it also means "clandestine bets" ,because the story deals with bookmakers ,and one attends race horses .

The plot is almost devoid of any interest ;it is essentially,like so many French movies of the late fifties, a pretext of showing female variety shows (the "Chinese "performance is not bad at all) , which attracted the male audience at the time ;for good measure ,a woman briefly appears topless:it was too much for the Office Catholique Du Cinema who forbade the film to their flock ;today it's utterly harmless.

Funny scene: the young girl looking for a job in a nightclub ,because she's got a good voice, she used to sing in the operas ;she's asked to strip right away ,because the manager wants to see her legs.