This film was unique on a couple of counts: 1) it clearly sanctions a crime of passion as something that does not cry out for retributive justice--it elicits sympathy for the perpetrator of the crime much more than for the victim; 2) there is a kind of male bonding between Gabin and his doctor "copain" which suggests that friendship between men can attain a measure of intimacy never possible in their relations with women--and this without a hint of homosexual eroticism. Maybe it was France of the Popular Front that made it all possible.
Review of Lady Killer
