This is supposed to take place in Canada ,but we know it just because on the one and only shop of that hole, it reads" general store" :the policemen are not even dressed up as the Canadian Mounties.The production is mean and thin,even though the ending tries to sound as a northern western ,complete with shack lost in the snows , a secret carved in the wood ,and gangland killing .
The story gets off to a most auspicious start though :the police station where the captain is sick of this dump; Fred ,the fugitive , who takes refuge in the house of his former love , who married a physician, who mistakes him for her brother.Simone urges her former husband not to leave the place,but he intends to avenge himself :someone gave him away to the police five years ago.And a shady storekeeper seems to know too much about him.
With a stellar actress such as Madeleine Robinson ,ex-child actor René Dary's hangdog look ,and good support from Jean Debucourt ,the movie could have been an honest psychological drama.but when the villain ,his henchmen and the bad girl, who loves Fred too,enter the scene , it becomes a poor melodramatic thriller ,with Pre-war years accent : the bad gal wants Fred and her to elope,but he wants to leave for new horizons with his former love.The last third is the kind of story the average viewer has seen one hundred times or more,and besides,Madeleine Robinson is almost absent,and her female co-star is no match for her.
