Le Dessous des cartes (1948)
Directed by André Cayatte

Film Review

Before he became obsessed with railing against the injustices of the French judiciary, director André Cayatte was content with the less high-minded objective of entertaining mainstream cinema audiences.  Le Dessous des cartes is one of his more successful attempts at a crowdpleasing genre film, a slick murder mystery inspired by the cause célèbre of the 1930s, the Stavisky Affair.  Le Dessous des cartes may not be the most profound and thought-provoking of Cayatte's films but it is an entertaining distraction, its suspenseful narrative coloured by a wealth of talent on the acting front.

Madeleine Sologne received top-billing as the Veronica Lake-like femme fatale but proved to be a massive liability, owing to her much publicised friendliness towards the Germans during the Occupation.  After a meteoric rise to stardom through her appearance in Jean Delannoy's L'Éternel retour (1943) Sologne's taste of fame was brief and by the time she made Le Dessous des cartes her career was all but over.  The film's failure at the box office was a blow that no actress could recover from.  This is a shame as Sologne's alluring screen presence was virtually unrivalled in French cinema at the time, and Cayatte exploits her ice cold beauty to devastating effect in his film.

The earthy and amiable Serge Reggiani is the perfect complement to Sologne's svelte golden haired temptress.  Just as Sologne's career was about to hit the buffers, Reggiani's was on the brink of taking off, although he too would fail to secure lasting stardom as an actor.  Cayatte later employed him on Les Amants de Vérone (1949), a few years before Reggiani found his most celebrated role, in Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1952).  Also early in his career, Paul Meurisse shows up as a duplicitous police inspector, although the actor fails to bring to the part the menace and charm of his subsequent screen portrayals.  Reggiani and Meurisse were the only two members of the original film to appear in its Italian version Manù il contrabbandiere, directed by Lucio de Caro in the same year.  Another name to watch out for is Janine Darcey, a perfect choice for the role of Reggiani's dowdy girlfriend (she was married to the actor at the time).  With such a distinguished cast and a plot worthy of Simenon, Le Dessous des cartes can hardly fail to please.

Film Synopsis

His criminal activities exposed, a crooked financier named Géraudy takes flight and intends to make his escape across the alpine border with the help of a young smuggler, Manu.  When his wife Florence declines to join him, Géraudy hangs himself, thus depriving her of his life insurance.  Florence persuades Inspecteur Nansen that Géraudy's death was murder not suicide, and Manu is soon arrested as the obvious suspect.  Manu's only hope is a suicide note written by Géraudy just before he killed himself, but this he has entrusted to his girlfriend.  The latter cannot forgive Manu when she sees him with Florence and so it appears that an innocent young man will be condemned for Géraudy's supposed murder...