Pièges (1939) - film review

When 11 young Parisian women mysteriously disappear, the police recruit Adrienne Charpentier, the friend of the latest victim, to investigate.  The only thing which seems to link the disappearances is that each of the victims replied to a small ad in the newspapers.  In answering a number of ads herself, Adrienne meets some suspicious individuals, but they all turn out to be innocent.  Then she meets a cabaret performer, Robert Fleury, who instantly falls in love with her.  Soon after marrying Fleury, she discovers damning evidence that inculpates him as the murderer of the missing women...

Pièges is an excellent example of European film noir from the German-born director Robert Siodmak, made during his period of exile in France before the war.  The influence of director Fritz Lang can be seen through the film, which shows some strong similarities with Lang’s masterpiece M.

The film is a curious blend of light contemporary French romantic comedy and very dark crime thriller.  The last segment of the film is as tense and as moody as any classic film noir, but makes a bizarre contrast with the first half of the film, in which the popular performer Maurice Chevalier is happily singing chansons d’amour.

Siodmak’s direction is accomplished, but far from perfect, although the atmospheric cinematography makes this a compelling and suspense-laden work.  The acting is also of a high calibre, with particularly strong performances from Pierre Renoir and Maurice Chevalier.  Erich von Stroheim is delightful in his bizarre cameo part whilst Marie Déa is impressive as the no-nonsense and gutsy Adrienne, a refreshing contrast to the feeble, two-dimensional screen heroines of the time.  In many ways, Pièges is the template for the crime thriller which would become one of the most popular genres in French cinema in subsequent decades.

© James Travers 2002

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