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Les Espions
1957 Drama
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Credits
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Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
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Script: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jérôme Géronimi, Egon Hostovsky
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Photo: Christian Matras
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Music: Georges Auric
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Cast: Curd Jürgens (Alex),
Peter Ustinov (Michel Kiminsky),
O.E. Hasse (Hugo Vogel),
Sam Jaffe (Sam Cooper),
Paul Carpenter (Col. Howard),
Véra Clouzot (Lucie),
Martita Hunt (Connie Harper),
Gérard Séty (Dr. Malik),
Gabrielle Dorziat (Madame Andrée l'infirmière),
Louis Seigner (Valette),
Jean-Jacques Lécot (Le faux contrôleur),
Robert Lombard (Le contrôleur),
Patrick Dewaere (Le petit Moinet)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 125 min; B&W
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Aka: The Spies
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Summary
Dr Malic is the director of a run-down psychiatric clinic. One evening, a stranger,
Colonel Howard, offers him a huge some of money to shelter a secret agent named Alex.
No sooner has Malic accepted the bizarre commission than he finds everyone around him
– his staff, his patients, even the bartender in his pub – is replaced by a stranger with
a foreign accent. Increasingly perturbed by what is happening, Malic decides to
uncover the truth for himself, but only ends up getting embroiled in a deeper mystery…
Review
Henri-Georges Clouzot followed his masterful and hugely successful suspense thriller
Les Diaboliques (1955) with this perplexing
parody thriller, a far less satisfactory work that proved to be something of a commercial
embarrassment. Despite a remarkable international cast – which includes Peter Ustinov
and Curd Jürgens – Les Espions fails to
ignite in the way that Clouzot’s earlier thrillers did. The laboured, uninspired
direction does little to sustain the interest of the spectator as the torturously complex
plot thickens without any let up towards its utterly baffling, unresolved denouement.
The film’s only real selling point is the dark, slightly surreal humour that Clouzot manages
to inject into the film. If only he had gone the whole hog and made this a black
comedy rather than a half-hearted spy parody it may have been a far more interesting and
rewarding film.
© James Travers 2006
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