Though his later color RISQUES DU METIER and LE VERDICT come close, this is the best of lawyer/film maker Cayatte's ciné-tracts, a grim, plausible and involving attack on the guillotining of prisoners. With a few digressions (AMANTS DU VERONNE, CHEMINS DE KHATMANDOU) the director devoted his career to the iniquities of the French legal system and French society reflected by it. Imagine a preachier, French Sidney Lumet.
A disparate group of prisoners lie in the condemned cell, waiting in the dark to be dragged to their execution. Only when the sun comes up do they sleep.Pellegrin is the nearest thing to a star, though Balpêtre is a familiar character face (Le COURBEAU) who was in JOURNAL D'UN CURÉ DE COMPAGNE with Claude Leydu. We get their back stories but the inhuman prison routine is far more involving.
This is a deeply disturbing film, probably the most convincing of the Cayatte collection, and it works as rather severe entertainment too. It certainly should be more widely seen. Imagine this on a double with the Yilmaz Guney film LE MUR which covers the same ground.
