Cette vieille canaille (1933) - film review

At a busy fairground, Hélène, the daughter of a stall holder, gets into a fight with a rival over a man, the handsome acrobat Jean.  A respectable late middle-aged man intervenes and tends to her injuries, but Hélène is then arrested and ends up in a prison cell.  That same night, Hélène is mysteriously released from prison and taken to a luxurious private residence.  There she meets her benefactor, Professor Vautier, a once eminent surgeon who is now retired.  The older man makes no attempt to restrain Hélène, but he offers her the house as her own home.  Hélène accepts Vautier’s kindness and it is not long before she has forgotten her former life and her lover Jean.  Although Vautier apparently has no amorous designs of his own, he manages to thwart every attempt Hélène makes to hook another man.  Then, one day, Hélène meets up with Jean once more.  This time, she cannot let him go...

Cette vieille canaille was one of half a dozen films that Russian director Anatole Litvak made in France before taking up residence in the United States, where he directed several Hollywood classics including Anastasia (1956).   Litvak’s 1930s European films are striking in their sombre cinematographic style which uses light and shade to create mood and tension, in a way that echoes German expressionism of the silent era and prefigures film noir of the 1940s.

This film features two major stars of French cinema – Harry Baur and Pierre Blanchar, both great actors with a reputation for bringing realism, psychological depth and pathos to their performances.  Baur is particularly sympathetic is this film, playing a tragicomic character with a slightly sinister edge.  The female lead is played by the beautiful and talented Alice Field, one of her few memorable film appearances.  There’s also a nice performance from Madeleine Guitty, a delightful eccentric who bears more than a passing resemblance to the great British actress Margaret Rutherford.

Whilst this is far from being Litvak’s best film (the main let-down being the lacklustre screenplay and some clunky editing), it is a strangely compelling work, one which explores the conflict between true love and wealth with some depth and a cruel sense of irony.  Vautier’s restrained feelings for Hélène make an effective contrast with the all-consuming passion that drives his rival Jean to the edge of reason, showing how differently people can be marked by the same raw sentiments.   With the sensitivity of a true poet, Litvak conveys the complexity of romantic love and its devastating consequences with great insight and humanity.

© James Travers 2007

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