Film Review
Director Henri Decoin brings a touch of old-fashioned razzmatazz and
dark humour to a hideously contrived plot in this somewhat
schizophrenic murder mystery thriller. Lacking the eerie mood of
Decoin's previous thrillers,
Les
Intrigantes is a curious mixed bag that isn't quite sure whether
it's meant to be a classic whodunit, an outright comedy or a
tongue-in-cheek exposé of the theatrical world. The film's
schizoid character is reflected in its cast, which sees Louis de
Funès (well over a decade before he became France's popular
comic actor) not so much sharing the limelight as stealing it outright
with merciless determination from the billed stars Jeanne Moreau,
Raymond Rouleau and Raymond Pellegrin.
Les Intrigantes is a polished
production, as slick as any other Decoin film of this era, but plotwise
it is something of a mess, with several disparate elements failing to
cohere into anything vaguely resembling a satisfying whole. It
doesn't help that the performances of the three lead actors are
shamelessly overwrought - perhaps they were afraid of being completely
eclipsed by the new kid on the block, de Funès.
Pellegrin is enjoyably sinister, looking more menacing than ever behind
a pair of dark shades, but it is such a cartoonish manifestation of
evil that it would be much better suited for pantomime (it's clearly
his audition piece for the
Fantômas movies he would
voice in the 1960s).
Early in her career, Jeanne Moreau has already cultivated the
femme libre mystique that would
become her hallmark but Decoin fails to exploit her sultry charms and
she only comes to life in her scenes with Pellegrin. The
dangerously erotic Moreau-Pellegrin chemistry is the best thing going
for the film, but this is far better exploited in their next film
together, Pierre Billon's
Jusqu'au dernier (1957).
As for Raymond Rouleau... well, he just does a lot of shouting and
looking like a man with a hangman's noose around his neck. With
none of the leads taking things that seriously, it was inevitable that
Monsieur de Funès should come to the fore and steal the whole
show, irresistibly funny as a tyrannical playwright defending the
artistic integrity of a play that is only safe to watch whilst under a
deep anaesthetic. Paul Demange fills the (few) comedy cracks that
de Funès somehow overlooks, and gets the last laugh (literally)
as a hellishly persistent insurance broker.
The Upstagers would probably have
been a more accurate title.
© James Travers 2014
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Next Henri Decoin film:
Secrets d'alcove (1954)
Film Synopsis
Theatre impresario Paul Rémi is rehearsing his new production
Rendez-vous sur l'Olympe when his
business partner Bazine falls to his death from a gangway high above
the stage. Rémi faces arrest and disgrace when, tipped off
by an anonymous witness, the newspapers accuse him of murder. To
buy himself some time, he allows himself to be admitted to a
psychiatric hospital. The mysterious witness turns out to be his
assistant, Andrieux, who offers Rémi's wife Mona a long-awaited
opportunity to take control of the theatre if she works with him to
have her husband put away for good. The temptation is too great
for Mona to resist, but Rémi can rely on help from another
quarter. His secretary Marie has the evidence that will proof his
innocence, but will she live long enough to make any use of it...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.