User reviews

Generally despised by the highbrows and the true connoisseurs of the French cinema ,Jean Stelli made some interesting efforts and it is to these that any review must address itself .

The movie owes a lot to actor extraordinaire Charles Vanel (whose parts in "le salaire de la peur " (=wages of fear) and "les diaboliques are known world -wide); he and Pierre Larquey shine and thoroughly eclipse the bland young lovers and their problem with the girl's papa who wants her to do a money match .

All the action takes place on a building site where two foremen meet again :they should not work together ,because they share a mysterious secret ; although it is revealed late in the movie, the silence between both men is threatening .

The atmosphere of the site and the camaraderie between the workers is well depicted .With good support from his old pal Larquey , Vanel is, by turns, friendly and smiling or somber and angry . He seems to want to help his young colleague ,and even saves his life (but wasn't the hopper wagon incident actually a murder attempt?) ; but his attitude is more and more ambiguous, and,slowly but inexorably ,he sinks into madness ; one may say he overplays in the last scenes of amour fou, but he transcends Stelli's academic direction .