Les disparus de St. Agil

Youth culture in the 20th century is literally a mystery. It may have started, innocently enough, with a couple of grand celebrated coming of age novels - Booth Tarkington's "Seventeen" in the U.S. and Alain-Fournier's "Le Grand Meaulne" in France, both published appropriately enough in the teens of the last century. But from then on appeared mystery and action novels aimed squarely at a teenage public in no hurry to grow up and set in a contemporary setting (unlike, say, period pieces like "Treasure Island" or "Kidnapped", or all-out fantasies like "The Lord of the Rings"). The elements of danger, mystery and suspense were always present in that sub-genre of literature as if the thrill of puberty and adolescence had to be naturally expressed through the predominant feeling of fear, left over from the terror of childhood fairy tales. This tradition yielded an untold number of "Hardy Boys" novels and Boy Scout romances on both sides of the Atlantic. This is the tradition that would eventually produce "Scoobidoo" cartoons as well as the Harry Potter novels and that gave the book from which "Les Disparus de St-Agil" is extracted. It is a worthy film with many brilliant adult and juvenile actors (Eric Von Stroheim, Michel Simon and the young Marcel Mouloudji who would eventually loose his first name to become the singer-composer Mouloudji of St-Germain-des-Prés fame in the 50's; even eventual singers and actors Charles Aznavour and Serge Reggiani appear uncredited as school-boys). This story of children disappearing and reappearing while solving a murder-disappearance enigma with supernatural overtones that has stumped more mature minds in their boarding school is a microcosm of adolescent identity acted out with all the natural of Jean Vigo's earlier "Zéro de conduite", thanks to Jacques Prévert's gift for believable dialog. The school's secret society is called "les chiche-capons", which is synonymous with after-school shenanigans and has become the name of a famous French pop group today. The expression is an argot rendering of the chicken games kids play to dare themselves into being braver (chiche = I dare you; capon = chicken, coward, non-entity). Christian-Jacque's direction of this claustrophobic drama is modern, sympathetic, limpid and utilitarian but very different from the sweep and scope of his "comic epics" like "Les Perles de la Couronne" (1937, for Sacha Guitry) or "Fanfan La Tulipe" (1952, with Gérard Philipe).

At a boarding school, three boys -- Serge Grave, Marcel Mouloudji, and Jean Claudio -- have formed a secret society with the skeleton in the science class room. Their purpose is to go to America, where they can be free. After a meeting, Claudio sees Robert Le Vignan appear suddenly, then disappear as suddenly. The next day, modern language teacher Erich von Stroheim -- who is always being teased into a rage by art teacher Michel Simon -- announces they will be studying H. G. Wells' THE INVISIBLE MAN. Claudio insists on talking about the man who keeps appearing and disappearing, so von Stroheim sends him to the headmaster, Aimé Clariond. Clariond remonstrates with him, and Claudio leaves.... and disappears. Grave and Mouloudji think he has gone to America, particularly when Grave receives a postcard from New York from Claudio, which von Stroheim steals. Then Mouloudji disappears. Simon gets drunk and when the lights cut out, tumbles to his death. Then Grave disappears. Where have they gone? And where did Simon get the money to purchase half a dozen original Durers?

Christian-Jaque is not considered a great director, but his work was always solid, and commercially successful. Here, working with a script partly derived from a Victor Hugo play, he offers a tale of three imaginative boys at a second-rate school, where the teachers know they've reached a dead end. He gives Simon a fine, unlikable role, and von Stroheim a chance to play with his usual screen image in an unlikely way, as well as a finale that echoes ZERO DE CONDUITE in a very amusing manner.

Charles Aznavour plays one of the students in his second screen appearance. I didn't recognize him as a 13-year-old boy.

This is a first class version of Pierre Very's 'detective novel for children'. Christian-Jaque is the director and the atmosphere is provided by cinematographer Marcel Julien with a wonderfully 'spooky' score by Henri Verdun. Here we have a truly amazing bunch of unique, eccentric actors the likes of whom we will never see again. What can one say about Erich von Stroheim, Michel Simon and Robert le Vigan? The latter skipped parole and fled to Argentina while serving a sentence for his fascist sympathies. Von Stroheim created a persona for himself as an Austrian aristocrat although he was in fact the son of a lower-middle class Jewish hatter. Simon much preferred living with animals than humans and kept pet monkeys. They are all splendid in this of course and Simon does a wonderful 'drunk'. Good support by Armand Bernard as a rather neurotic concierge and Aimee Clariond of the Comedie Francaise who never seemed to be out of work, as the headmaster. The boys are excellent, notably Marcel Mouloudji who later found renown as a chanteur and was highly effective in Cayatte's 'Nous sommes tous les assassins' and Jean Claudio who played Dmitri in L'Herbier's 'Rasputin'. Apparently Serge Reggiani and Charles Aznavour, uncredited, play schoolboys. I certainly didn't spot them but I suppose if I made the effort I just might. Great entertainment and one of Christian-Jaque's best. Herbert Lom once said that making a film involves a collection of egomaniacs trying to give the impression of working as part of a team. This film brought his observation to mind!

I have seen German boy's school (All Quiet on the Western Front), UK boy's school (Goodbye, Mr. Chips), and American boy's school (Dead Poet's Society). So, now was my time to check out the French version of Boys School. Let us just say that the other countries did it a bit better. It is a good try, but no cigar, despite some interesting performances. Erich von Stroheim is always fun to watch, and the rest of the cast is fine. The writing is just weaker than the other countries' counterparts. Harmless fun.

You can get a great Trivia question out of this movie: In which film did Charles Aznavour and Serge Reggiani have uncredited roles and Jacques Prevert supply uncredited dialogue. Dix sur dix. You got it in one. This would probably be a great film even without Prevert's linguistic touches because all the elements are in place; a cloistered setting which serves as a microcosm for the world outside, a story that holds the attention with just the right amount of suspense/mystery and an exceptional and, dare I say it, SYMPATHETIC performance from that man you love to hate Eric Von Stroheim who goes toe-to-toe with Michel Simon and is still standing at the end of fifteen rounds. Stroheim - with hair yet - is a member of the faculty at a boarding school for boys or, to put it another way, a German actor is playing an English teacher (teacher OF English)in a French school, quite a trick which he pulls off despite his French being about three times as slow as that of the natives. The film reeks of atmosphere and has perhaps been unfairly overshadowed because it was produced at a time - 1938 - when France was turning out really classic drama such as Hotel du Nord, Quai des brumes, Le Jour se leve, Carnet du bal etc. The good news is that there's an excellent print now available on DVD so what are you waiting for.