An unfairly underrated movie (on the site!)!ALL Chabrol fans should see it because most of this directors' issues ,that is to say the bourgeoisie horror ,are already here in Louis Daquin's excellent "voyageur de la Toussaint",from a George Simenon's novel.
A young man comes back to his hometown to be confronted with a bourgeois obnoxious family who has always despised his -now dead - parents because they were music hall artists ,"entertainers".But because he's the sole legatee of an uncle's fortune,his relatives become friendly with him.. at least for a while.
the cast is absolutely terrific gathering the crème de la crème of the actors of the era:Jules Berry,who was one of Marcel Carné's favorite actors ("les visiteurs du soir " and "le jour se lève") as well as Renoir 's ("le crime de Monsieur Lange") an who portrays a hateful repugnant business man;Gabrielle Dorziat,in a terrifying part of an over-possessive mother whose son (Serge Reggiani,who takes cynism to new limits) is an out -and-out scoundrel:and yet she's still fascinated by him,she always admire him;Jean Desailly (debut)as the innocent young man gives a sensitive and heart-warming performance.His smile lightens this dark atmosphere along with that of his uncle 's young widow,an ex-usherette whom the whole family despises as well.
The detective plot involves blackmail,bribes,poisoning and even whodunit.The family calls itself "the syndicate" because of its power and its influence on the whole town.
Filmed during the Occupation,"le voyageur de la toussaint" is not unlike Henri-Georges Clouzot's "le corbeau" released the same year:the depiction of a rotten microcosm.The main difference lies in Desailly's character :in Clouzot's work no just can redeem Sodom.Here this young
virtuous upholder of the law prevents the movie from being "scandalous" and outlawed from society as "le corbeau" was.
SPOILER SPOILER:nevertheless there are elements of the Vichy government propaganda :the bad mother whom I mention above is a good example of it:of course she's the criminal but she was anyway well before poisoning her brother because ,in Vichy's mind,a woman was born to bring up her children carefully.The scene in which she confesses her crime climaxes the movie:Daquin uses depth of field with startling results.
A young man comes back to his hometown to be confronted with a bourgeois obnoxious family who has always despised his -now dead - parents because they were music hall artists ,"entertainers".But because he's the sole legatee of an uncle's fortune,his relatives become friendly with him.. at least for a while.
the cast is absolutely terrific gathering the crème de la crème of the actors of the era:Jules Berry,who was one of Marcel Carné's favorite actors ("les visiteurs du soir " and "le jour se lève") as well as Renoir 's ("le crime de Monsieur Lange") an who portrays a hateful repugnant business man;Gabrielle Dorziat,in a terrifying part of an over-possessive mother whose son (Serge Reggiani,who takes cynism to new limits) is an out -and-out scoundrel:and yet she's still fascinated by him,she always admire him;Jean Desailly (debut)as the innocent young man gives a sensitive and heart-warming performance.His smile lightens this dark atmosphere along with that of his uncle 's young widow,an ex-usherette whom the whole family despises as well.
The detective plot involves blackmail,bribes,poisoning and even whodunit.The family calls itself "the syndicate" because of its power and its influence on the whole town.
Filmed during the Occupation,"le voyageur de la toussaint" is not unlike Henri-Georges Clouzot's "le corbeau" released the same year:the depiction of a rotten microcosm.The main difference lies in Desailly's character :in Clouzot's work no just can redeem Sodom.Here this young
virtuous upholder of the law prevents the movie from being "scandalous" and outlawed from society as "le corbeau" was.
SPOILER SPOILER:nevertheless there are elements of the Vichy government propaganda :the bad mother whom I mention above is a good example of it:of course she's the criminal but she was anyway well before poisoning her brother because ,in Vichy's mind,a woman was born to bring up her children carefully.The scene in which she confesses her crime climaxes the movie:Daquin uses depth of field with startling results.