What classics did you see last week ? (4 Aug- 10 Aug 2019)

Le Corbeau (The Raven) / Henri-Georges Clouzot (1943). France. This great film was shot in France during the Nazi occupation of the country. When it was released, it was denounced by all sides. The Nazis recognized that the story of rampant paranoia, suspicion, and betrayals was an allegory of the atmosphere in France at that time. Those opposed to the occupation disliked the film because of its dark picture of the French people, portraying them as easily led into mob violence. The setting is the small town of St. Robin outside of Paris. All at once residents begin receiving poison-pen letters signed by “The Raven.” The letters reveal either the recipient’s personal secrets or warns about the danger that others present. Most of them seem to be directed toward the newest doctor in town, Dr. Germain (Pierre Fresnay). The anonymous letters accuse him of, among other things, of being an abortionist and having an affair with the young wife of a well loved older physician. It isn’t long before everyone in St. Robin is at each others’ throats. Suspicion bounces from person to person. Who is The Raven? The elderly doctor or his young wife? The landlord’s sexually active daughter? Her 14-year-old sister who has a crush on Dr. Germain? And how about the bitter, pinch-faced nurse at the hospital? The Reveal does not come until the final seconds, resulting in a startling conclusion. The tension created by Director Clouzot is almost palpable. The movie is derived from a novel which, in turn, was based on a historical incident from the 1920s.

I used to think of the Hollywood penchant toward remaking foreign films in English to be a modern phenomenon until I encountered the 1951 remake of Fritz Lang’s German classic “M” from 1939. Well, that comment segues nicely into the American remake of “Le Corbeau” called….

The 13th Letter / Otto Preminger (1951). Twentieth Century Fox. This English remake of “Le Corbeau” doesn’t mention the French film as a source nor the historical incident from the 1920s it is based on but refers back only to the novel. It does pay some homage to its French origins. An opening title tells us that the new movie was filmed in its entirety at a “small French-Canadian community in the Province of Quebec.” When I reviewed the Hollywood remake of Fritz Lang’s “M” (released the same year as “The 13th Letter” but from different studios), I said that if you could, as much as possible, take the new film on its own merits then it had quite a bit to offer. I can’t quite say the same for the Preminger effort. The director doesn’t seem to be working too hard for a film that falls between “Where The Sidewalk Ends” and “Angel Face” in his filmography. The new film is not quite a shot-for-shot remake but is pretty much a scene-for-scene redo. The only substantial change is right at the end where a fairly long dialog passage goes to explaining the crimes in a lot more detail than Clouzot provided – but I liked the Clouzot approach better. The new young doctor is played by Michael Rennie who can’t come close to showing the inner turmoil that Pierre Fresnay brought to his tormented physician. Linda Darnell is good enough as the landlord’s flirty daughter if she isn’t nearly as seductive and overtly sexual as the French would have it. The only real notable performance is by Charles Boyer who is quite brilliant as the elderly doctor with the young wife who the anonymous letters continually link to Rennie’s character. Howard Koch wrote the screenplay. The cinematographer was Joseph LaShelle (Laura, The Apartment, Marty), so there was talent behind the camera. I can neither recommend or not recommend this picture. See it if curiosity leads you that way. It’s not really a bad movie but not a very good one either.

Matching scenes. The two doctors confer.