Film Review
Towards the end of his long and illustrious career, director Jean
Delannoy stayed clear of controversy and was content to turn out
anodyne potboilers for a mainstream audience. Whilst few of
these films are particularly memorable, most are admirably well crafted
and remind us that whilst Delannoy may not have been a particularly
great auteur he was an extremely competent director.
La Peau de torpedo is one of the
more enjoyable of his later crowdpleasers, a gritty spy thriller which,
in common with much of Delannoy's work, was some years ahead of its
time.
Based on a novel of the same title by Francis Ryck,
La Peau de torpedo is worlds apart
from the popular spy thrillers of the time, as represented by the James
Bond and OSS 117 movies, which opted for a more tonge-in-cheek,
comic-book approach. Delannoy's spy movie is much more realistic,
with far more in the way of graphic violence. The film is
superbly well-cast, with Stéphane Audran at her most formidable
as the heroine with a murderously short fuse and a well-developed
instinct for survival.
Klaus Kinski crops up towards the end of this well-honed adventure as
the unlikeliest hit-man, with Lilli Palmer doing her bit for women's
lib as a hard-headed and even more heart-hearted
spy-mistress. The film is marred by an unevenness of tempo
and a few unnecessary longueurs but it redeems itself with a tense and
bloody denouement which reveals in its director a surprising sadistic
streak.
La Peau de torpedo
is by no means a classic, but it is a respectable example of its genre,
one that anticipates the grittier action thrillers of the 1970s.
© James Travers 2014
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Next Jean Delannoy film:
Pas folle la guêpe (1972)
Film Synopsis
To everyone who knows him, including his wife Dominique, Nicolas
Krestowics is a respectable antiquarian. In truth, he works for
an enemy spy ring and uses his work as a cover for his espionage
activities. After one such mission, Nicolas is ordered by his
superior Helen to lie low, which means sharing an apartment with a
woman he does not know. When Dominique hears that Nicolas has
been seen with another woman she immediately puts two and two together
and trails him to his hideout. In a fit of jealousy, she shoots
her husband dead with his own gun and goes on the run. She
doesn't yet know that Nicolas' employers consider her a dangerous
witness and have sent two trained killers to execute her...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.