Menaces (1940) - film review

France, 1938.  Despite the Munich Agreement, the outbreak of war seems imminent.  In a small Parisian hotel, several disparate individuals take refuge from the storm clouds that are gathering over Europe.  Denise, an attractive young dress vendeuse, hopes soon to marry Dick Stone, an English journalist.  She is alarmed when her neighbour, Louis, an artist, reveals his obsession for her, but she agrees to accompany him to his barracks where he will start his military service.  Another boarder in the hotel is an Austrian refugee, Hoffmann, who was facially disfigured whilst serving in the last war and who now, despite his good work as a doctor, finds himself increasingly alienated.  Everyone hopes for peace, but each fears the worst…

Edmond T. Gréville’s Menaces is defined by a dual aspect (the best of human nature, the worst of human nature, the longing for peace, the inevitability of war, etc) that reflected the time in which the film was made (in the months preceding the start of World War II) and also the film’s chequered production.  Initially titled “Cinq jours d’angoisse”, the first recording of the film was destroyed in a fire and the filming had to be repeated.  By this time, events had moved on and the script was amended, almost on a daily basis, to capture the rapidly unfolding events in Europe.  During the war, the film was very nearly lost forever a second time, but, having saved the film, Gréville decided to change the ending after the Liberation in 1944.  The film hence exists in two versions, the first with a pessimistic ending, released in 1939, the second, with a more upbeat ending, released in 1945.

Whilst it may not be Gréville’s best work (the production difficulties leave their mark on the film), there are some moments of brilliance which make the film well worth watching.  Erich Von Stroheim gives a perfectly judged performance as a disillusioned war veteran who gets to sum up the situation of impending war with the film’s best line about the dual aspect of human nature.  Even if the director’s last minute tinkering with the film now appears clumsy and painfully at odds with its naturally doom-laden thrust, Menaces offers a valuable historical perspective on one of the most turbulent periods in the history of mankind.

© James Travers 2006

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