Le Récif de corail (1938) - film review

To escape arrest after killing a man in Brisbane, Trott Lennard joins the crew of a cargo ship bound for Mexico.  En route, Lennard has the opportunity to disembark at a paradisiacal island but decides to continue his voyage.  On reaching Mexico, he discovers he is to play a part in a gun running operation.  Accused of stealing money from the ship’s captain, Lennard is locked up whilst the ship returns to Australia.  Back in Brisbane, Lennard becomes aware that he is being trailed by a police inspector, Abboy.  He takes refuge in the countryside, and it is here that he encounters Lilian, a young woman who is also a fugitive from her past.   When they fall in love, Lennard resolves to take Lilian to his island paradise.  Then he discovers that Lilian too is wanted for murder.  Before they can escape the police, Lilian becomes the latest victim of a deadly influenza epidemic…

After their, by now, legendary appearance together in Marcel Carné’s, Le Quai des brumes (1938), Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan are reunited for a second time in this equally atmospheric romantic drama which, unusually, is set in Australia.  The mood of the film evokes the film noir and poetic realist styles of the period, but eschews a fatalistic outcome in favour of an ironic happy ending.  The film is far too rough-and-ready to be described as a masterpiece – the low budget sets undermine the film’s realism whilst the passage of time is poorly represented in the first half of the film.  However, mesmerising performances from Gabin and Morgan, together with the dark poetry in Charles Spaak’s dialogue, all but obliterate the film’s weaker points in its gripping second half.  The film was thought to have been lost forever until a copy was discovered recently in Belgrade, Serbia.  Now restored, the film compares well alongside other French classics of the period.

© James Travers 2004

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