Russian-born Victor Trivas directed only five movies but had a writer credit on about a dozen including Welle's The Stranger and Preminger's Where The Sidewalk Ends. He also worked as an Art Director and that shows in his set-ups in this early Sound film, a Gallic counterpart to Wellman's Wild Boys Of The Road or even Dead End. For 1933 Trivas lays some very tasty camera-work on the viewer beginning with the opening credits which are supered over a long-tracking shot over cobbled and rain-washed cobbled streets, a precursor of noir if ever there was one. Elsewhere he lets his camera roam up and down stairwells in a manner that Max Ophuls would go on to refine. This is really a case of Style leaving Content dead in the water for the story of poor kids going astray was old chapeau even then. Definitely worth a look.
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