Le Carrefour des enfants perdus (1944) - film review

Marseille, 1940.  In the chaotic aftermath of France’s capitulation to Nazi Germany, three former inmates of a reform school meet up by chance.  They are Jean Victor, a journalist, Émile Ferrand, a recently demobbed solider, and Joseph Malory.  All three are moved by the plight of a homeless young orphan boy, La Puce, whom they save from the hands of the police.  Victor suggests that they open a home for abandoned youngsters like La Puce, a home that provides its inmates with hope and an educations, instead of iron bars and beatings.  With the support of a local notable, Monsieur Gerbault, Victor obtains the authorisation to go ahead and he converts an old hotel into what will be called The Crossroads for Lost Children.  Meanwhile, Ferrand, Malory and Andrée Denolle, a social worker, manage to get the juvenile courts to release a few hundred children into their care and the home soon becomes a success.   But not all of the youngsters appreciate the kindness they are offered.  Some of the boys, in particular a rebel rouser named Joris, are determined to cause trouble and threaten the home with closure...
© Willems Henri (Brussels, Belgium)

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