Emile ZOLA's books are deceptive.It is hard to transfer them to the screen badly while being harder still to make great movies out of them.In "La Bete Humaine" the 19th volume in the Rougon-Macquart saga,the hero was "invented" from start to finish by the writer who needed another son of Gervaise ("l'Assommoir").Like most of Zola's characters ,his family had a history of mental illness (which stemmed from alcoholism).When he made his movie in 1939,(la Bete Humaine)Jean Renoir insisted on the "I cannot help it" side ,which the scene when Gabin tries to strangle Blanchette Brunoy and the apocalyptic finale perfectly restitutes.
As Zola's book was -it's one of his best- also a thriller (some of its chapters make me think of Patricia Highsmith) ,Lang's treatment made sense.This is one of the few Zola novels which after all could happen in America .The war is a hackneyed subject and is not really a good equivalent of Lantier's (the original name)folly.That's why Glenn Ford's character is not really interesting ,even if it fits in the Lang's "every man is a potential criminal" mold.On the other hand Gloria Grahame's character is at least as good as Simone Simon's one.She displays more ambiguity,she too seems at once "good" and "evil".
Lang's talent makes the opening as exciting as Renoir's work but the finale is definitely inferior.
It was the second time Ford and Grahame had teamed up for Lang after "the big heat" (which was ,IMHO,a better collaboration)
As Zola's book was -it's one of his best- also a thriller (some of its chapters make me think of Patricia Highsmith) ,Lang's treatment made sense.This is one of the few Zola novels which after all could happen in America .The war is a hackneyed subject and is not really a good equivalent of Lantier's (the original name)folly.That's why Glenn Ford's character is not really interesting ,even if it fits in the Lang's "every man is a potential criminal" mold.On the other hand Gloria Grahame's character is at least as good as Simone Simon's one.She displays more ambiguity,she too seems at once "good" and "evil".
Lang's talent makes the opening as exciting as Renoir's work but the finale is definitely inferior.
It was the second time Ford and Grahame had teamed up for Lang after "the big heat" (which was ,IMHO,a better collaboration)