Film Review
With its picturesque Italian locations and impeccably dressed,
womanising secret agent,
Les Loups
chassent la nuit (a.k.a.
La
ragazza di Trieste) can hardly help looking like an early attempt at a James Bond
movie, although it would be a full decade being Ian Fleming's famous
spy would be launched on the big screen. The plot bears more than a passing
resemblance to that of Alfred Hitchcock's
Notorious (1946) but in fact it
is taken from Pierre Frondaie's novel
Le
Lieutenant de Gibraltar. Unusually for a spy thriller of
this era, the film is concerned more with character than with plot,
with most of the focus being directed towards the central romance
involving the two main characters - a French spy and his sensual
Italian lover. To coin a phrase, the thriller intrigue looks as
if it is just one big MacGuffin, hastily dispensed with right at the
end of the film. Hitchcock would no doubt have been immensely gratified.
The role of the proto-Bond lead agent went to Jean-Pierre Aumont,
striving to regain his popularity in France after his decade in
Hollywood. Here, Aumont is handsomely partnered by Italian beauty
Carla Del Poggio, who had previously distinguished herself in some
notable Italian films, including Vittorio De Sica's
Un garibaldino al convento
(1942). Fernand Ledoux is a curious choice for the role of
Aumont's spymaster - he looks like a cross between a Graham Greene
character and a Bond villain, as he keeps cropping up expectedly in a
Panama hat with a cat tucked under his arm. Marcel Herrand shows up in
one of his last roles before his untimely death and Louis de
Funès makes a fleeting appearance in an uncredited role as a
barman.
In this, his debut feature, Bernard Borderie already shows a knack of
delivering a solid crowdpleaser with a quality feel - something that would
set up him apart from other French mainstream filmmakers for most of
his career. It would be going too far to describe Borderie as an
auteur, but his films, which spanned a wide range of popular genres,
had a distinctive character and represent some of the best in
mainstream cinema for their time. After
Les Loups chassent la nuit,
Borderie would have his first major success with
La Môme vert-de-gris
(1953), the first of the hugely popular Lemmy Caution films starring
Eddie Constantine. He
would then routinely turn out American-style thrillers for the next
decade, before having his biggest hit with the
Angélique films of the
mid-1960s.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Bernard Borderie film:
La Môme vert-de-gris (1953)
Film Synopsis
Thomas Mollert. the head of a counter-espionage network, meets up with
one of his agents, Cyril, in Trieste, to instruct him on his next
assignment. As he embarks on his mission to unmask a spy named
Miguel, Cyril strikes up an acquaintance with an attractive young
woman, Catherine, in a bar. The latter will prove invaluable in
protecting Cyril from his dangerous adversaries and ensuring his
mission is a success...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.