A previous poster said it all and succinctly; Carne sans Prevert is like Rodgers without Hart. Of course no film that stars Jean Gabin, features Louis Seigner (grandfather of Emmanuelle and Mathilde) and is directed by Marcel Carne could ever be totally bad it's just that the potential for greatness has been missed. Another poster made the pertinent remark that when Georges Simenon abandons the subject of murder/crime his books - and by extension the films made from them - tend to be duller. What we have here is a protagonist (Gabin) around fifty or so, owner of a bar/restaurant/club and a cinema and an eye for the ladies. As is to be expected Carne frames his shots in an interesting way and the black and white photography makes for some reasonable light-and-shadow effects but there's not a lot more than that on offer.
Review of La Marie du Port
