"Forces occultes" represents Vichy France's most determined effort at nazi propaganda.
The film depicts the rise of a young MP who, to further his career, joins the French Freemasons. He subsequently starts to believe that along with the Jews, they deliberately want to push France into a war against Germany.
This is, of course, pure odious Vichy propaganda...
At the Liberation, screenwriter Jean Marquès-Rivière, producer Robert Muzard and director Paul Riche (real name Jean Mamy) were all severely punished for their overt collabaration with Vichy and the Nazis. On November 25th 1945, Muzard, also the director of the popular magazine "Ciné-Mondial" was condemned to 3 years imprisonment. Jean Marquès-Rivière, who had fled France, was condemned to death, to National degradation (loss civil rights as a French citizen); all his assets were also confiscated. Director, Jean Mamy (a.k.a Paul Riche), a journalist at the French nazi newspaper "Au pilori" and a fierce anti-semite was also condemned to death. He was shot by a firing squad at the Montrouge fortress on March 29th 1949.
