At the time,Le Chanois was the New wavelet's favorite Bête Noire .One often forgets he began as a communist activist ("Le Temps Des Cerises") and gave a handful of excellent movies in the 1946-1952 era,the best of which remaining his wonderful" Ecole Buissonnière". A craftsman and a humanist at that ,his career is not as dismal as the N.V. clique claims.
The sixties were his most mediocre period;he was wise enough to call it a day in 1966 (he died in 1985)."Monsieur" has some good moments ,particularly in Gabrielle Dorziat's scene asking Jean Lefevre for a dead body to make sure her son-in-law is dead and to latch onto his dough;Mireille Darc has spontaneity and charm going for her in her maid turned hooker turned maid again role ,which eventually ends up in a Cinderellaesque way .Gabin is Gabin but his part is weak :just compare to what Sacha Guitry did with Michel Simon in a similar subject in "La Vie D'Un Honnête Homme "(1952).Philippe Noiret is wasted and Liselotte Pulver gives a rather poor performance (to think that she was the heroine of Douglas Sirk's masterpiece " a time to love and a time to die" (1958)!)
It was to be Gaby Morlay's last part (she died the same year) and she does seem the ghost of herself;One wishes she had left the screen on a high note,on the endearing "Fortunat" (1960)for instance.
The sixties were his most mediocre period;he was wise enough to call it a day in 1966 (he died in 1985)."Monsieur" has some good moments ,particularly in Gabrielle Dorziat's scene asking Jean Lefevre for a dead body to make sure her son-in-law is dead and to latch onto his dough;Mireille Darc has spontaneity and charm going for her in her maid turned hooker turned maid again role ,which eventually ends up in a Cinderellaesque way .Gabin is Gabin but his part is weak :just compare to what Sacha Guitry did with Michel Simon in a similar subject in "La Vie D'Un Honnête Homme "(1952).Philippe Noiret is wasted and Liselotte Pulver gives a rather poor performance (to think that she was the heroine of Douglas Sirk's masterpiece " a time to love and a time to die" (1958)!)
It was to be Gaby Morlay's last part (she died the same year) and she does seem the ghost of herself;One wishes she had left the screen on a high note,on the endearing "Fortunat" (1960)for instance.