It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Blistering performances.

Only 6 reviews for that pure Masterpiece of French Film Noir, direct in my top 5 ("Les Diaboliques" have 160 reviews and "Non Coupable" has only 2 reviews (?)(another pure masterpiece of French Film Noir with Michel Simon at his best, in my top 5 of course). Everything has been said by other bright reviewers, I just confirm you cannot forget that sick darkness of the characters. Impossible, printed forever in your mind.

With most of the family on holiday,I realised that I could catch-up on some long awaited viewings. Reading excellent comments on the title from fellow IMDber dbdumonteil,I decided to discover how much deadlier auteur Julien Duvivier could make things.The plot:Divorced from his wife Gabrielle for over 20 years, André Chatelin has poured his heart and soul into becoming the greatest chef in Paris,with even the President going for regular meals at Chatelin's café. Whilst clearing up,Catherine walks in. Not having seen Gabrielle's for over 20 years,Catherine reveals to Chatelin that she has recently died,and that she herself is Gabrielle's daughter. Bringing Catherine into the business, Chatelin starts finding Catherine placing romantic feelings on him. Whilst Chatelin takes everything at face value,Catherine starts cooking up a scheme that will reveal her to be deadlier than the male.View on the film:Opening with a crane shot sweeping up the streets of Paris, co- writer/(with Charles Dorat/Maurice Bessy and Pierre-Aristide Bréal) directing auteur Julien Duvivier & Henri-Georges Clouzot's regular cinematographer Armand Thirard pull the viewer into the dirty side streets with a glistening "evil under the flames" aura being cooked up in the kitchen between Chatelin and Catherine, which spills over in dazzling pre-French New Wave outdoor shooting,which gives Chatelin's battles for Catherine an on the spot urgency. Served in just under two hours, Duvivier grills his unique Film Noir style with a rich canvas of lingering murky shadows and transfixing tracking shots,which sway on the pessimism seeping into Chatelin's "image" of Catherine.Giving the viewer the opportunity to taste Chatelin's Noir meals,the screenplay by Duvivier/Bessy and Bréal fully explore the relationships in brilliantly subtle gestures,via the almost- son/dad bond between Chatelin and Gérard Delacroix breaking down into Noir loners fighting in the streets,and Catherine's humble,pristine image being chipped away to unveil the heart of a Femme Fatale. Keeping her real hand out of sight,the writers smartly spend the first hour threading a bond between Catherine and Chatelin that shines with some glimpses of sincere love,which wilts away into the Noir tar that Catherine tries to keep out of Chatelin's sight. Shimmering into Chatelin's kitchen, Danièle Delorme gives an exquisite performance as Catherine,whose Femme Fatale mind games are given an earthy veneer by Delorme that tug at the heart strings of Chatelin,and shake up the Angry Young Man tension within Gérard. Giving his exchanges with Gérard (played by a great Gérard Blain) a parental warmth,Jean Gabin gives an extraordinary performance as Chatelin. Constantly seeing the burnt embers of past romantic relationships,Gabin catches the youthful excitement that surrounds Chatelin in a new romance,but is unable to escape the Noir loner wriggling unease that Catherine has a hidden side that is about to steam up.

No, I can't believe that this film only get 3 users reviews, 419 voters, and not even one topic on its message board! It is one of the four immortal masterpieces —along with "Pépé le Moko", "La fin du jour" and "Panique"— of an immortal master, Julien Duvivier.All in there is at the very top (and even the over-the-top is at the top!).A clockwork scenario, the sharp dialogues, a cinematography like they knew how to make. And the best own's performances for Jean Gabin, Danièle Delorme, Lucienne Bogaert.See it! Watch Duvivier's movies! Vive le cinéma!Didier_fort at hotmail.com

This film, remastered and released in France June 1st, 2016 on Blu- ray + DVD by Pathé with a choice of English or French Subtitles is a very good all-rounder cinematographically speaking. First we have the wailing theme song sung by Germaine Montero accompanied by a shivery solo accordion. The picture quality, though black and white, is excellent and the sets themselves are the epitome, for the Paris region at least, of French popular culture.First and foremost we have a long disappeared part of Paris, the Halles market, called "le ventre de Paris" or the belly of Paris due to its being the source of nourishment for most of the Parisians. The atmosphere of this area is extremely well rendered and we see various characters typical of the day, and notably a few "forts" or strong men, so called because they used to lug around day in and day out huge carcasses of meat upon their shoulders. Many years ago, Les Halles was transferred out of Paris to Rungis in the suburbs and the gaping hole that was left after the removal of the four "pavillons" or market buildings has today been filled with a shopping mall called the "Forum des Halles" but which has little to do with the original market building. One of the original pavillons was saved and re-erected at Nogent-sur-Marne in the suburbs, not far from the Marne river and is used for dances and other meetings.The second aspect of parisian culture is the guingette or dance Hall on the banks of the Marne river owned by Gabin's mother. It is set quite a way out at Lagny-sur-Marne. We see various characters of the time and hear the accordion music to which millions danced the "java", "valse musette" and other typically parisian popular dances.The third aspect is the seedy room in the Hôtel du Charolais in which lives the supposedly deceased mother of Danièle Delorme and where the final horror takes place.The film was made by Julien Duvivier ( cf La Belle Equipe ) who was a master of a certain type of french film called "film noir", a pessimistic type of film with a gloomy unpromising ending, what the French call "une fin sans concession".The film is extremely well acted. Gabin is between two ages, not the young impetuous character from La Belle Equipe nor the older patriarch character from "La Horse" ou "Le Clan des Siciliens". I think he is supposed to be in his mid fifties, perhaps as he was in real life and comes over EXCELLENTLY as a restaurant owner. Delorme, who had an angelic face but an evil character beyond all imagination turns up as the daughter of his estranged wife saying her mother is dead and asking Gabin to look after her. All this is a devilish plot fomented between her and her mother, who is still alive, to marry Gabin for his money and then dispose of him. Gabin is so good-natured that he doesn't see this at first and takes Delorme at face value to the point of even turning against his own adoptive sun. Delorme is extremely evil to the point of playing one off against the other - when you see her at it you want to wring her neck ! - but a certain number of fateful slip-ups will be made along the way and she will come a cropper in conformity with the outcome of this 'film noir". She not only precipitates one of her former lovers to his death but also kills Gabin's adopted sun with a coldness which can only be described as totally psychotic !!Although Delorme and her mother are evil, they are not alone. Gabin's mother, who runs the guingette in Lagny is a cold domineering character who has an inventive way of killing chickens - with a whiplash - quite a nifty idea on the part of Duvivier I thought - and this same whiplash is used to good effect on Delorme at one moment in the film.There is also a servant woman, extremely ugly and shrivelled-up who is poking her nose into everyone else's affairs. All this goes to show that, bar Gabin and his adoptive son, most of the other characters in the film are real scum and the spectator can have no sympathy with them at all. It's just a shame to see someone as nice as Gabin being taken in.The final justice is meted out to Delorme not by Gabin as we might expect but by the dog belonging to his murdered son who no doubt "smelled" out his killer. An excellent way of getting Gabin off the hook, and in fact causing more panic in Delorme's eyes than if she had been threatened by a man !I have no idea whether the film is known outside France ( like Les Diaboliques ) but it certainly merits the attention of anyone who is interested in good French cinema of the "Film Noir" type. More than that it is a living documentary of Paris in 1959 and is a must for those across the world who love that city !