Tempête (1940) - film review

Tempête is a French thriller film first released in 1940, directed by Bernard-Deschamps.  The film stars Arletty, Marcel Dalio, Annie Ducaux, Erich von Stroheim and Henri Bry.  It has also been released under the title: Thunder Over Paris.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.

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They should screen this for every political correctness fanatic on both sides of the Atlantic.  Seen today, it is breathtaking in its audacity, but clearly in 1940 no one blinked an eye at Erich von Stroheim blacked-up and selling hair straightener to Negroes in Harlem.  Having made a cool million at this racket, he returns to France and embarks on another con involving the Sahara and is well on the way to a second million.  This, however, is where the story really starts, a story that involves his daughter and an enemy.

Director Bernard Deschamps co-wrote the screenplay with André Cayatte who, one year later, would be directing his own films at Continental, and there's a peach of a cast - not least Arletty, Jean Debucourt, Carette and Dalio (both still being billed by one name; the Julien and Marcel respectively came later).  There is one other player worthy of mention: a young actress who broke into films in 1936 and gradually worked her way upwards, yet is virtually unknown today.  She was Jacqueline Prévot. Four months after the Germans entered Paris, she committed suicide, together with her mother and grandfather, rather than live under German rule.  A sad footnote to a fascinating film.

© Leon Nock (London, England) 2010 

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