Deux hommes dans Manhattan (1959) - film review

Moreau, a French journalist assigned to New York, is sent out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a French United Nations diplomat, Fèvre-Berthier.  When he fails to learn anything from the diplomat’s secretary, he recruits a cynical, alcoholic magazine photographer to help him in his mission.  The two men make a nocturnal search of New York in a determined bid to uncover the truth.

Jean-Pierre Melville was the French director who was most successful in transposing the American film noir genre to European cinema, and Deux hommes dans Manhattan is the film which shows its American roots most clearly.  The film is set in New York, the dialogue is half English, half French, and most of the cast (excluding the lead characters) are American actors.

But this is more than a straightforward homage to the genre which obsessed Melville and had the greatest impact on his film-making.  Melville somehow manages to capture the essence of American film noir and reassemble it almost as a work of art.

The film is so stylish and alluring, with its eternally melancholic jazz soundtrack and captivating nocturnal photography, that its weaknesses (threadbare plot, some weak characterisation) are scarcely noticeable.  Melville himself gives a charismatic performance as the lead character Moreau, whilst Pierre Grasset plays Delmas, a typical Melvillesque character, a hardened cynic of ambiguous morality who ultimately emerges as the most sympathetic character.

The film is sadly overlooked, and Melville himself he was disappointed with it, but it represents an important part in the director’s oeuvre and ought to be regarded as a great film.

© James Travers 2000

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