Des femmes disparaissent (1959) - film review

In Marseilles, the notorious gang leader Quaglio runs a prostitution ring.  His plan involves luring young woman to his mansion on the outskirts of the town, before drugging them and smuggling them out of the country to be sold as prostitutes.   A young car mechanic, Pierre, discovers that his fiancée Béatrice is attending one of Quaglio’s soirées and attempts to rescue her.  But Quaglio’s trigger-happy henchmen prove to be far tougher than he had thought…

It’s hard to believe but Edouard Molinaro, the director of such classic comedies as La Cage aux folles (1978),  Hibernatus (1969) and L’Emmerdeur (1973)  first cut his teeth as a director with anodyne crime dramas such as this.   Des femmes disparaissent is a typical French 1950s thriller, an all too obvious imitation of the American gangster movie, although Molinaro does manage to evoke the essence of classic film noir very effectively in some sequences.  The problem with the film is that it is too much of a pastiche, with very little substance to it – no real characterisation, a threadbare plot, and interminable, badly choreographed, fight scenes.   On the plus side, Art Blakey’s marvellous jazz score gives the film a touch of stylish modernity, an innovation which thriller directors of the time were quick to emulate.

© James Travers 2006

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