Au diable la vertu (1953) - film review

When his wife discovers that he has spent the night away from home, Pierre has to act fast to prevent her finding out about his mistress.  He hires a complete stranger to provide him with the perfect alibi, but the stranger soon turns out to have committed a household robbery on the night in question.  Arrested for complicity in the robbery, Pierre sinks further into the mire when the woman he is accused of raping identifies him as her aggressor.

Some ebullient performances make this rather convoluted farce entertaining – watch out for Louis de Funès in one of his early supporting roles.  As usual, the narrative is driven by a seemingly endless series of improbable mix-ups of identity, but some of the jokes are actually quite good.  The film’s highpoint is the hilarious sequences where the investigating judge and his entourage attempt to identify a love bite on a witness’ upper thigh – you wouldn’t find that kind of thing in an American film of this period.

© James Travers 2006

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