This movie actually belongs to the late thirties .It's the story of the good guy,who was born under a bad sign -we know nothing of Jean -Louis's past ,but we can easily imagine it.He was born to lose ,we know it from the very start when he walks through the wood catching vipers to sell them to a laboratory.This character is akin to those Jean Gabin used to play in the Golden Age .
Henri Vidal was not lucky :more handsome than Gabin,his good looks went against him and his career ,with the staggering exception of Clement's "Les Maudits" did not include really great works;some good ones ,for sure,but not the works he was dreaming of ;he was then married to Michele Morgan and her parts must have made him drool.
"Quai De Grenelle" is as pessimistic ,as dark as those classics of the thirties.Even the settings recall "Hotel Du Nord " ("Hotel Du Quai De Grenelle"),"Le Jour Se Leve" or "Quai Des Brumes" .The problem is:was it completely obsolete by 1950?Was it so old fashioned? does it deserve the bad review it gets in "Dictionnaire Des Films" ? I would incline to clemency.The movie begins with an incident of no importance:the hero forgets to use the pedestrian crossing and the policeman is cross.Who could have believed then where it would lead the unfortunate Jean-Louis to?Two unscrupulous journalists depict him as a monster ,who releases vipers in town.Because of a hold up,the city is looking for a scapegoat ,and this poor lad looks the part too much.
Although the superintendent insists there's really nothing against him ,Jean-Louis becomes paranoiac and hides in shady places .He leaves his girlfriend (Françoise Arnoul),meets a hooker (Maria Mauban) and an aging man (Jean Tissier).Descent into hell indeed !All the scenes take place in the dark and sometimes you only see the shadows on the wall.
The Catholic Office of Cinema banned the movie and for a good reason.Sex plays a prominent part in the plot;after all,it deals with snakes,what a symbol!Besides,the journalist writes an obnoxious article just because her husband ,busy talking with his victim,did not take time to make love to her;and if the old hatter hands his young protégé over to the Police,it is because he is gay and in love with a man he knows will never sleep with him;and what about the former girlfriend's dance with a snake ? By several respects ,the movie retains a contemporary side:the press,the fourth estate which can ruin a life .It's not Wilder's contemporary "the big carnival" ,it's not Schoendorff's "Die Verlonere Ehre Der Katharina Blum" either.But at the beginning of the French fifties ,it was pretty good value.
