Quand la femme s'en mêle (1957)
Directed by Yves Allégret

Film Review

Yves Allégret began his career working as an assistant to his older brother Marc Allégret and the legendary cineaste Jean Renoir. He made his directing debut in 1943 with Les Deux timides, although it wasn't until he made Dedée d'Anvers (1948), the first in a series of noir-influenced masterpieces, that he was taken seriously by the critics. After Les Orgueilleux (1953), Yves Allégret's career began a slow but irreversible decline as the director became increasingly prone to the prevailing populist tastes of the time. This is illustrated by the film he released in 1957, Quand la femme s'en mêle, a somewhat formulaic comedy-thriller based on a popular novel by Jean Amila entitled Sans attendre Godot.

Whilst the film is far from being Allégret's best and pales in comparison with contemporary hard-boiled policiers by Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Doulos) and Jacques Becker (Touchez pas au grisbi), it nonetheless makes an enjoyable romp, effectively combining several diverse genres into a satisfying star-studded potpourri.  With its slightly humorous asides, Quand la femme s'en mêle certainly does not take itself too seriously but, thanks to Charles Spaak's slick screenwriting, neither is it dull or ridiculous.  Released at a time when the traditional film noir gangster movie was beginning to feel a tad passé in France, this film played a part in the establishment of a related genre, the parody policier.  Georges Lautner is the French director who had most success with this emerging genre, his popular Monocle films being a prelude to his memorable box office winners Les Tontons flingueurs (1963) and Ne nous fâchons pas (1966).

One area where Quand la femme s'en mêle cannot fail to impress is in its cast - the film boasts an acting ensemble that most self-respecting filmmakers would sell their soul for.  Supremely elegant in her Pierre Balmain's dresses, that legend of stage and screen Edwige Feuillère is the ideal choice for the role of Maine, a sarcastic and classy gangster's moll who ultimately shows she has more balls than her ineffectual male cohorts.  Doing their best not to look like the weaker sex next to  Feuillère's ballsy bitch (and failing) are two other French cinema icons: Bernard Blier, the comedy gangster par excellence, and Jean Servais, happily parodying his tough gangster roles in such films as Jules Dassin's Du rififi chez les hommes (1955). The biggest revelation in the supporting cast is Bruno Cremer, who, in his second screen role, makes an immediate impact as an icy cold killer.  Having distinguished himself in La 317e section (1965) and La Bande à Bonnot (1969), Cremer would become a mainstay of French cinema for the next three decades, although it was on French television that he found his most memorable role, as Jules Maigret in a popular long-running series.

Sophier Daumier also makes her mark as a young innocent who manages to get herself caught up in a world of violence and romantic intrigue; she would later form a successful stage double act with her husband, Guy Bedos.  Making an impressive screen debut in a role that appear to have been tailor-made for him is a young and surprisingly sympathetic Alain Delon - who better to play the super-efficient bodyguard Jo, a precursor of his most iconic role in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï (1967)?  Immediately after this, Delon went on to work with Allégret's brother Marc on Sois belle et tais-toi (1958), a similar comedy thriller in which the actor rubbed shoulders with another screen icon in the making, Jean-Paul Belmondo.  The dream cast is completed by a distinguished band that comprises Jean Lefebvre, Pierre Mondy, Pascale Roberts, Jean Debucourt and Yves Deniaud.

Quand la femme s'en mêle may not have been as enthusiastically received by the critics as Yves Allégret's previous films, but it managed to attract a very respectable audience of 0.9 million on its first release in France.  On the strength of its remarkable cast line-up alone, it deserves to rate as a minor classic of the French comedy policier genre.  After this, Yves Allégret made a few films of note - La Fille de Hambourg (1958) and Germinal (1963) - but, perhaps demoralised by the tragic death of his son in 1955, he now seemed to lack the immense creative flair of his early years.  In his final decades, the director fell well short of the promise of those remarkable films he had made in the late 1940s, early 1950s, crowned by his lyrical masterpiece Une si jolie petite plage (1949).  Quand la femme s'en mêle feels like a last hurrah for a director who knew that his best days were way behind him.

Film Synopsis

Henri Godot, the head of a Parisian-based criminal gang, has begun an amorous liaison with Maine, the former girlfriend of one of his equally ruthless rivals, Bobby.  Infuriated by this double betrayal, Bobby swears to have his revenge and it isn't long before armed hit-men are on Godot's tail.  Luckily, Godot has an efficient bodyguard, Jo, who manages to keep his employer out of harm's way.  An attempt to kidnap Maine is similarly frustrated.  An awkward situation becomes even more complicated when Maine's former husband Félix Seguin shows up unexpectedly, accompanied by his precocious 17-year-old daughter, Colette.  The latter has yet to forgive Maine, her natural mother, for walking out on her father.

The reason for Félix's trip to Paris is soon revealed.  He has recently discovered that his second wife's death in a fire was not accidental but an unfortunate consequence of an insurance scam orchestrated by Auguste Coudert de La Taillerie, the wealthy proprietor of the Galéries Modernes.  Félix hopes that with Godot's help, he can put in motion a plan of revenge.  The two men begin by paying a call on the insurance agent who dealt with the claim.  Before he commits suicide, the compromised agent leaves a letter which incriminates La Taillerie.  Hearing of this, the latter offers Jo a large sum of money if he will steal the troublesome letter for him.  By this time, Jo and Colette are a lot closer than Godot would like, and so Colette is the one tasked with purloining the letter.  The attempt is thwarted by Maine, who, being as keen to see justice done as her ex-husband, accompanies Félix and Jo to La Taillerie's resplendent château.  In the ensuing confrontation, the crooked entrepreneur and Jo are gunned down.  His revenge lust satisfied, Félix departs with his daughter, leaving Godot and Maine behind in Paris to sort out matters with the police.