Les inconnus dans la maison

French Cinema under the German occupation has proved an endless source of fascination for film historians, critics and cinéphiles for reasons that are both artistic and political. Two films in particular made under the auspices of the German-controlled Continental-Film were banned for their supposed pro-Pétainist slant, both of which involved Henri-Georges Clouzot, as the director of 'Le Corbeau' and as adaptor of Georges Simenon's 'Les Inconnues dans la Maison' the previous year which was the second film for Continental directed by Henri Decoin. Neither Decoin nor the film's narrator Pierre Fresnay who starred in 'Le Corbeau' were ever able to shake off the stigma of collaboration. The film's reputation was not exactly helped by its being shown with an anti-Semitic short entitled 'Les Corruptueurs' and its murderer being an 'outsider' named Ephraim, subsequently re-dubbed as Amédée. It also raised questions regarding Simenon's racial stance.

For this viewer at any rate Decoin's film is a little short of his best but marks an early attempt to bring Simenon's bleak vision to the screen and the opening scene of a grey, rain-soaked Northern town could not fail to resonate with the understandable gloom felt by the French. It remains however a more than respectable entry in the Simenon filmic canon, due to Clouzot's excellent screenplay and the magnificent performance as Maitre Lausart by Raimu who invests the somewhat pathetic character with a dignity and humanity that ranks alongside his unforgettable Aimable, Chabert and of course, César. He is very much low-key throughout but the sight of him at full throttle in the climactic courtroom scene is a wonder to behold. His impassioned plea for misguided youth as a product of complacent and disinterested bourgeois parenting looks forward to Cayatte's 'Avant le Déluge'.

There have been two remakes, directed by Pierre Louve and Georges Lautner but both James Mason and Jean-Paul Belmondo were to find Raimu the toughest act to follow.