Film Review
The same year that he made his impressive period drama
Les Deux orphelines (1933)
(a remake of D.W. Giffith's
Orphans of the Storm (1921)),
Maurice Tourneur knocked out this somewhat less well-known work,
a medium-length thriller that, with its grim subject
matter and moody cinematography, contains the seeds of classic
film noir and the modern psycho-thriller.
Based on a play by Charles Binet and André de Lorde,
L'Homme mystérieux (also referred to as
Obsession)
is a bleak study in mental derangement which grimly satirises
society's attitudes to mental illness in the 1930s. It is one Tourneur's
darkest works, its oppressive atmosphere the product of a subtly expressionistic style which the
director would develop on his subsequent gangster film
Justin de Marseille (1935),
Before this, Tourneur had laid the foundation for the police procedural drama
in his earlier film
Au nom de la loi (1932).
Together, these three films seem to offer a prototype for American film noir of the 1940s,
containing many of the genre's stylistic and thematic tropes.
Tourneur's subsequent output is varied, spanning a range of genres,
from grand period pieces such as
Volpone (1941)
to moralising melodramas like
Le Val d'enfer (1943),
but he also delivered two other notable noirish dramas:
Cécile est morte (1944)
and
Impasse des deux anges (1948).
© James Travers 2008
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Maurice Tourneur film:
Les Deux orphelines (1933)
Film Synopsis
To resolve a business matter, Pierre needs to have his brother Raymond
released from the psychiatric institution to which he was committed
after he attacked his wife Louise. The latter is still convinced
that Raymond intends to kill her but agrees, reluctantly, to press for
her husband's release. Against the advice of his doctor, Raymond
is allowed to return home to his wife and young son, apparently
restored to his erstwhile normality. Unfortunately, Raymond is
anything but well, and his wife's fears are about to be
confirmed...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.