The Great Temptation

All that was made in the glittering thirties in the French cinema was not gold."La porte du large" is an appalling military melodrama where a father,a naval officer,who teaches in naval college , and his son ,a middie ,fall in love with the same woman.Something's got to give.Who will marry her?

French historian Jean Tulard writes that this melodrama is performed in an outmoded way,and we can only agree with him.However the actors were extremely competent:Victor Francen was sublime in Duvivier's "la fin du jour" and Gance's "j'accuse" ;Jean -Pierre Aumont was one of the romantic male leads of the period .Like in "l'équipage" ,Roland Toutain serves as a comical foil to him.But Marcel Lherbier whose heyday was the twenties was now overtaken by Renoir,Carné ,Duvivier,Gance and many others.