Film Review
After working with Michel Simon on
La Taverne du poisson
couronné (1946), director René Chanas teamed up with
him immediately afterwards for what would turn out to be his best film, a
fair (but hardly distinguished) adaptation of Auguste Bailly's well-known
1923 novel
La Carcasse et le Tord-cou. In the course of a decade,
Chanas directed ten films, none of which has stood the test of time well
as they are mostly lazy attempts to imitate the work of others.
La
Carcasse et le Tord-cou is clearly modelled on Jacques Becker's
Goupi mains rouges (1943)
and offers a similar oppressive rural setting inhabited by rough-hewn rural
grotesques, of which Simon's misanthropic leading character is the roughest
example. Chanas's lack of inspiration and a humdrum adaptation by René
Lefèvre (a far better actor than he ever was a writer) prevent the
film from having anything like the impact and enduring appeal of Becker's
dark rural comedy, but the presence of Simon and a strong supporting cast
ensure that it is far from without interest.
Once again, Simon finds himself cast as the cankerous 'vieux schnock', the
role he was pretty well saddled ever since he first came to prominence in
the early 1930s (then under considerable makeup, now looking distinctly worse
for wear). Despite this, he is not the most vile character the film
throws at us - this honour is shared between the two principals, a nasty
pair of schemers admirably played by Lucien Coëdel and Michèle
Martin. By now, like Simon, Coëdel was pretty well typecast in
villainous roles, although his portrayals were far from lacking in depth
and often revealed a sympathetic side, as he showed in Christian-Jaque's
Carmen (1943) and André
Cayatte's
Roger la Honte (1946).
Coëdel brings a similar appealing ambiguity to his character in
La
Carcasse et le Tord-cou, and we can never be sure whether he is a fool
who is easily manipulated into crime by a calculating temptress or is as
monstrously black-hearted as he appears.
There's is no such ambiguity in Michèle Martin's character - Thérésa
looks like a cross between Lucrezia Borgia and Marlene Dietrich, the deadliest
of femmes fatales. In fact, there is scarcely a character in the film
that has even a glimmer of humanity. Thérésa's father,
Casimir (played by a magnificent Louis Seigner) is the grubbiest of the lot,
first manoeuvring his daughter into a profitable alliance and later savouring
the victory when things play out exactly as he seems to have foreseen.
In fact that's scarcely a single character in this horrible rogue's ensemble
who is less mean and threatening than the wild stretch of countryside they
inhabit. Tragically, this was to be Coëdel's final screen role.
On his way back to Paris after the location exteriors were shot, the actor
fell from a train and was fatally injured - a sad end to a great career.
© James Travers 2017
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Tord-Cou is a misanthropic drunken old man who scrapes a living as a country
policeman in a little village on the Grand Vau plateau in the remote depths
of rural France. Still in mourning after his wife's funeral, he lives
with his daughter Lucie and her husband La Carcasse, a moody, selfish man
with whom he fails to get on. Summoned by a notary, Tord-Cou is surprised
to learn that his estranged brother has just died and left him a large quantity
of money in his will. Carried away with his good fortune, the old man
buys himself a house and convinces his neighbour Casimir to allow him to
marry his beautiful young daughter, Thérésa. The only
attraction that Tord-Cou has for the latter is his newfound wealth, which,
given the old man's age and habit of doing rash things like fixing his roof
by himself, is soon likely to be hers. After Lucie's death, La Carcasse
finds himself attracted to Thérésa and, having decided to hasten
Tord-Cou's departure from this world, she enlists his help in murdering her
unwanted husband. The plan works better than they could have imagined
- but it turns out to be just what Casmir had expected...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.