Le Héros de la Marne (1939)
Directed by André Hugon

Film Review

André Hugon secured his place in film history when he directed the first French sound film, Les Trois Masques (1929).  His subsequent anti-war film Le Héros de la Marne had the more dubious honour of being one of the first films to be burned by the Nazis after they had taken control of Paris 1940.  It could be argued that in doing so the Nazis were doing French cinema a service, because Le Héros de la Marne is arguably one of the worst war films made in France - at least that is the impression one gets when watching the poor quality print that somehow survived being destroyed by the Germans. 

With war looking increasingly unavoidable in the late 1930s, strident anti-war films of this kind were quite prevalent and some - notably Abel Gance's J'Accuse (1938) - were more effective than others in raising awareness of what another European conflagration would mean for ordinary people.  Hugon's film suffers from an almost total lack of narrative coherence (the plot is essentially just a lazily cobbled together succession of clichés) and an even more obvious lack of resources.  Archive footage (of generally poor quality) is badly spliced into the film, with results that are often more comical than dramatic.  In a few scenes, some soldiers stand in front of a blown-up photograph and give an over-excited commentary on an air-raid and dog fight being waged above their heads.  The appalling cross-cutting between archive film and poorly realised studio scenes totally robs such scenes of any credibility.

And then there are the performances, which are truly in a class of their own.  Raimu may have been a great actor but even he was not immune to turning in an unbearably hammy performance when circumstances were against him (usually in the form of a bad script and clueless director).  Le Héros de la Marne does Raimu absolutely no favours whatsoever and for once his attempts to arouse the audience's sympathy fall completely flat.  Raimu is not alone in turning in a bad performance - the only member of the cast who manages to acquit himself is Édouard Delmont, whose presence brings a sobering reality to ever scene he appears in and hints at how much more powerful the film might have been in more capable hands.   It is possible that, in its original, unexpurgated state, Le Héros de la Marne was a film worth watching, one that did engage the spectator's interest and effectively argued against going to war.  But from what remains of this film, it seems unlikely that any of this could have been the case.

Film Synopsis

In a small village in Marne in 1914, Lefrançois forbids his son Jean from marrying Hélène.  When she finds she is pregnant with Jean's child, Hélène leaves the area and moves to Amiens.   When war is declared, Jean enlists and becomes a fighter pilot, the hero of his squadron.   Hélène plays her part when she delivers a vital message to the French troops on the eve of a massive German offensive.  Despite his age, Lefrançois enlists as a soldier, but loses his sight in combat.  Minutes after the armistice is signed in 1918, Jean is killed in the midst of a fierce air battle.  Lefrançois' family cannot break the news of Jean's death to the crippled war veteran...