Il fiacre N. 13

Eveything has been brilliantly said by french connoisseur reviewers. Yes, it's a great pleasure to see this pure melodrama with complex story (from de Montépain, story close to his "Porteuse de pain") longing on twenty years. There are two excellent main characters played by Marcel Herrand (who never thanks or salute) and Ginette Leclerc (beautifully dressed) and two excellent second characters played by Pierre Larquey and Raymond Bussières. The rest of the casting is ok, mostly italian. Maybe that's the reason why there is a french and italian director, each directing their own actors team in their language. The french director is Raoul André who did some lousy comedies all other his career, except a few social movies on prostitution ("les Clandestines", "Marchandes d'Illusions"), et un "Shock Corridor" à la française with Francis Blanche, "la Planque"). Raoul André directed his first movie "le Village de la colère", already a drama, and then this entertaining Fiacre N13.

An Italian -French co production,"Il Fiacre N. 13 " is the remake of a silent movie "Fiaker Nr. 13 "( Michael Kertész aka Michael Curtiz 1926).

Both movies were adaptations of one of the most famous French serial writers of the nineteenth century's novel ,Xavier De Montépin.Montépin ,like Eugene Sue ("Les Mysteres De Paris" ) or Adolphe D'Ennery ("Les Deux Orphelines " aka "orphans of the storm"),was a past master at melodrama .And I mean melodrama. All the permanent features of the genre are included: the traitor (Marcel Herrand as the noble who goes as far as to have his brother killed),the wrong man sentenced to chain gang ,the "nobody's child",the evil woman,the pure young maid,the dregs of society with curious names (Jean Jeudi= John Thursday probably inspired by the Chourineur character in "Les Mysteres De Paris") .As a bonus ,real life persons appear now and then: emperor Napoleon the Third and wife Eugenie (from a distance) and even psychoanalyst Dr Charcot whose methods would inspire Freud (the emotional shock which saved the poor mother who had lost her reason).

Based on the same structure as Montépin 's most celebrated novel "La Porteuse De Pain" (the bread carrier),the story is composed of two parts :"crime" and "punishment" .At a running time of 150min+ ,the movie was divided into two segments when it was theatrically released ,as it was sometimes the case with French or Itlian movies of the late forties /fifties.

That said ,"Il Fiacre N. 13 " (two credits for the director,but it is likely that Mattoli was the real one;it was Raoul André's sophomore effort and that director made duds by the dozen)is a true delight for people interested in the old melodrama genre.Never a dull moment.