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La Vérité sur Bébé Donge (1952)

Dir: Henri Decoin         Drama       stars 3
Overview
La Vérité sur Bébé Donge is a French film first released in 1952, directed by Henri Decoin.  The film is based on a novel by Georges Simenon and stars Danielle Darrieux, Jean Gabin, Jacques Castelot, Daniel Lecourtois and Marcel André.  It has also been released under the title: The Truth About Bebe Donge.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


La Verite sur Bebe Donge poster
Synopsis
A wealthy industrialist François Donge is seriously ill in hospital, apparently suffering from food poisoning.  He realises this his wife, Bébé, has poisoned him.  Without recrimination, he looks back on their marriage and tries to understand why she should want to kill him...


Film Review
Although slow moving, La Vérité sur Bébé Donge offers a typically Simenonesque dark study about the tragedy of an unfulfilled love.  Whilst the husband, François Donge, regards marriage as little more than yet another business contract, tidy and well formalised, his wife, the beautiful Bébé sees marriage as a step towards spiritual fulfilment.  Her frustration and disappointment soon transforms her initial affection for Donge into quite loathing, and she dispatches her husband with the same cool efficiency which he himself applies in his business life.

The film can easily be criticised for its lack of drama and emotional intensity, but its understated, almost complacent treatment of its subject lends it a disturbing tragic dimension.  The film’s power lies almost entirely in the spell-binding performances of its two lead actors, Jean Gabin and Danielle Darrieux.  (Darrieux had in fact been married for a while to the film’s director, Henri Decoin.)

© James Travers 2001

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Credits
  • Director: Henri Decoin
  • Script: Maurice Aubergé, Georges Simenon (novel)
  • Photo: Léonce-Henri Burel
  • Music: Jean-Jacques Grünenwald
  • Cast: Danielle Darrieux (Elisabeth Donge), Jean Gabin (François Donge), Jacques Castelot (Dr Jalabert), Daniel Lecourtois (Georges Donge), Marcel André (M. Droin), Claude Génia (Jeanne Donge), Gabrielle Dorziat (Madame D’Ortemont), Geneviève Guitry (Francoise), Emma Lyonel (Mme Lafitte)
  • Country: France
  • Language: French
  • Runtime: 110 min; B&W
  • Aka: The Truth About Bebe Donge; The Truth of Our Marriage


 
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