Pièges

Catherine Farrell tells fellow taxi dancer Marie Déa that she has a way out of the poor racket. She's answering a personal ad for a young single girl, with the possibility of matrimony. Then she disappears from the face of the earth. The police call in Mlle Déa. This is not the only case of this happening. She is a smart girl, who works as a translator and is observant. They agree she will answer suspicious ads with police detective Jean Témerson standing nearby. Some of people who answer these ads turn out to be bizarre, like Erich von Stroheim. Some are sweet and silly, like the young boy who shows up with flowers. In the course of these, she meets night club impressario Maurice Chevalier and his partner, Pierre Renoir. Chevalier pursues her, singing a couple of songs along the way, she cracks open a white slavery ring, all is wonderful, and then....

It was later remade as LURED with Lucille Ball in Mlle Déa's role; interestingly, Michel Michelet wrote the scores for both movies. But this one is not film noir, despite Siodmak's position in the genre during his American stay. It's not even magical realism. It seems to be half psychological thriller, and then when Chevalier shows up, it turns into a musical comedy. Director Robert Siodmak handles both tones well, with the Chevalier stuff never getting too light, and the psychological drama and darkness growing heavy only in the last half hour. Although I found the plunge into that last thirty minutes abrupt, it remained gripping throughout.

"Pièges" was Siodmak's last French movie (unless we count his failed remake of FEyder's "le grand jeu").And it was the great thriller he had threatened to make during all the thirties.Both "tumultes" and his curious "Mister Flow" were interesting but they were absolutely dwarfed by "Pièges".

"Pièges" is not perfect though: There's a certain vagueness in the middle of the film,when the heroine (Marie Déa) becomes a servant in a rich house .Déa plays an amateur undercover policewoman cause one of her friends was a victim of a maniac who stalks his preys through small ads .

Marie Déa's most famous parts were Carné 's "les Visiteurs du Soir" and Cocteau's "Orphée" but in this one,they put the whole weight on her and she carried it brilliantly.The other actors actually play supporting parts : Erich Von Stroheim's appearance does not exceed ten minutes but it's ten GREAT minutes.I have often got the strange feeling,when I'm watching Von Stroheim's French movies,that the directors make him play his own part of a fallen director.It's glaring in "l'alibi" where he plays a two-bit magician ,he who directed such masterworks as "greed" or "queen Kelly" ,or in "la Foire aux Chimères" where he portrays a humiliated man desperately in love with a woman who doesn't care about him.In "pièges" he plays a fallen top designer who still believes (or does he?) the aristocracy adores him.So he stands on his stage in front of an empty room,presenting his clothes :how can't we think of the former Hollywood film-maker?And of Gloria Swanson coming down her stair in "Sunset Blvd" where Von Stroheim was her butler.This Von Stroheim sequence,the connection of which with the movie is rather thin, is my favorite :it includes madness,hints at Perrault's "Blue Beard" and heralds the Freudian film noir which would become one of Siodmak's trademarks in his American forties ("Spiral staircase" the stunning "dark mirror" with two Olivia de Havilland)

On the other hand ,the choice of Maurice Chevalier was not a good one.Who can believe he's a serial killer?This singer (who sings two ditties:"mon amour " and "Il Pleurait Comme une Madeleine" (=he was crying his eyes out)is in a thriller like a bull in a china shop.

Pierre Renoir's performance is brilliant.Like Hitchcock,Siodmak did not like the whodunit that much and he knows we cannot suspect Chevalier.So his study of Renoir's character is absorbing,recalling sometimes Lorre's performance in Lang's "M" ,which the expressionist lighting effects reinforce:the scene when Marie Déa is asleep in a room where only the ticking of a clock is heard is first-class film noir stuff.

People who are familiar with Siodmak's American career should have a look at "Pièges" .It contains their seeds.

Catherine Farel (Lucie) tells her dance club friend Marie Déa (Adrienne) that she has found a way out of the nightclub hostess lifestyle by responding to a personal ad. Uh-oh, Farel has just become the latest victim of a serial murderer who lures his victims by placing personal ads. Déa is approached by Chief of Police André Brunot to work undercover by responding to personal ads and seeking out this killer. She accepts the mission.

This is an odd film because it flits between tense thriller and musical comedy, especially with the introduction of Maurice Chevalier (Robert). The film goes on too long because of this attempt to blend all the different genres and the songs by Chevalier are just not needed. The film holds some surprises and it is a good story. Déa should be top-billed as it is her thread that we follow and she has amusing and weird encounters with some lonely people placing advertisements. All the cast are good in their roles - and Erich von Stroheim (Pears) plays a lunatic fashionista who has totally lost the plot. The film has a tense ending and things don't become clear until then when you get that moment of realization. There are some strange and dangerous people in this world.

Before the internet, there used to be something called newspapers; and personal ads (the kind that are in Craig's List) used to be listed in these newspapers. This is a story of how these personal ads were used for nefarious reasons, and how an undercover policewoman gets involved in the case. Interesting and a bit different. Marie Dea does a fine job and you will be entertained.