User Reviews

"A Scandal in Paris" is a very good and very novel movie. It's based on an autobiographical two-volume story, but what's most novel about it is the screenplay itself, the mix of genres it includes, and the story method. It's a little like a modern docudrama in that a narrator provides voice-over at the start and during segments of the film. The narrator is also the main character of the film, and he's telling his own story. George Sanders plays that role of the unnamed character who went by many names in his life; but who after the first 30 years of his life became known as Eugene Francois Vidocq.

A word of caution, though, to those who may be attracted to this film for its billing as a film of adventure and romance. The adventure is mostly implied or slightly covered in voice-over as the story unfolds. The romance is very subdued and comes mostly toward the end. It definitely is about crime, and it has a literary and biographical backgrounds. But this is very much a tongue-in-cheek comedy film and costume drama centered around crime and a particular person who lived 30 years on the wrong side of the law. Then, when bitten by the love bug, he reforms and becomes a master criminologist. How much of Vidocq's story is true may never be known. The Encyclopedia Britannica has an entry on Francois-Eugene Vidocq (1775-1857) as a French detective, that verifies his audacious background and early years on the wrong side of the law. He was apparently well known "all over France," and counted several prominent authors of the day among his friends - Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, etc.

So, all of that should be enough to entice many movie buffs to watch this movie. From this cinephile's assessment, it will be well worth one's time. While there is a dark side to the story - in two killings toward the end, this is very good film that fits my category of caper comedies. While the deaths aren't directly related, the attest to the wisdom of Vidocq's conversion.

George Sanders is superb as the man of many names who ultimately chose one from a graveyard to go by as his life of wandering crime took a turn toward settling down. Sanders and Alma Kruger as the Marquise De Pierremont have the bulk of the clever and witty dialog. Akim Tamiroff is superb in his role as Emile Vernet, the partner in crime with Vidocq. This is one of the more dastardly roles I have seen Tamiroff play on the silver screen. He usually plays a likable character in various comedy romances, crime capers, and some dramas. Gene Lockhart has a very good role as the Prefect of Police, Richet.

The subdued romance comes between Vidocq and the Pierremont daughter, Therese. Signe Hasso plays the shy young woman superbly, and her role is as much one of being a knowing angel who is the inspiration for Vidocq going straight. The rest of the cast include some well-known actors of the day, all of whom give good performances - Carole Landis, Vladimir Sokoloff, Leona Maricle, Pedro de Cordoba and others.

The story takes place in France at the turn of the 19th century. The one scene that might lead some to wonder about Vidocq's cleverness in dealing with crime is when he enters the room where Richet has just accidentally killed Loretta. Vidocq picks up the pistol by the handle. While he was disturbing the evidence of a crime scene, it wasn't a major faux pas. The knowledge about the uniqueness of fingerprints and their use for identity was still decades away - in the 1890s.

This is a film that many adults should still enjoy well into the 21st century. It's one I don't ever recall seeing in the late night TV times or on any of the TV movie channels. Here are some favorite lines from the film.

Priest, "My child, in all of us there is a St. George and a dragon."

Eugene Francois Vidocq, "Love and crime make incompatible bedfellows. The most perfect criminal can be traced and caught when he leaves his heart behind him as a clue. Only the heartless succeed in crime, as in love."

Emile Vernet, "Look at that old Christmas tree parading around with diamonds big as tomb stones. If we could only get our hands on..." Eugene Vidocq, "It isn't done, Emile, to put such thoughts into words."

Marquise De Pierremont, "It is not good to speak of the dead in their presence. It will be safer to nibble at his reputation over a cup of chocolate."

Eugene Vidocq, "It isn't a question of morals, but of manners. A man who's capable of killing with a knife is quite liable to eat with one."

Eugene Vidocq, "I've had so many names, I'm afraid I don't remember the most recent one."

Loretta, to Richet, "I don't have any more hats than you have silly disguises."

Loretta, "Is the great detective trying to be funny, or have you really taken up peddling? Hmm. Not a bad idea. Perhaps you'd like me to accompany you on the streets with a harp doing, 'Throw me a penny, I am sick, and my husband's a lunatic.'"

Eugene Vidocq, "In crime, as in love, there are only those who do and those who don't dare."

Marquese, "All men are criminals in the light of reason. One steals our hearts, the other our jewels. Fortunately, my dear boy, you were as skillful at one as at the other."

Mimi, "I knew it from the beginning." Eugene Vidocq, "Knew what?" Mimi, "That no man is a saint."

Probably symbolising the Wheel of Fortune, a beautiful hand-cranked carousel in a pond features a couple of times towards the end of the film. Look for the rabbit seat which resembles the dog, Dougall, from the British Magic Roundabout stop-motion children's series. Here the church's St George vs Dragon stained glass tableau plays out in real life as the morality play on our freedom to choose right from wrong. Death & the Maiden are here, too, for those with the eyes to see. It seems that the first meeting of St George & his maiden happens at a rural bathing fountain where a serpent has lain hidden in this dress of one of the damsels bathing there. A strike from his riding crop dispatches that incarnation of the Beast but there will always be more. His other lady - seemingly more fair but dark at heart - dies when her jealous spouse disguised as a 'good fortune' manakin-selling beggar mistakes her attentions to a milliner's mannequin & shoots her out of the picture, so to speak. The delicate kiss of benediction which he gives to the girl whilst slipping quietly through her bedroom chamber may translate as a reverse Pygmalion touch where the spirit of St George transfers out of her dreams & into the rogue upon whom the chapel's window is styled.

The often-reliable Leonard Maltin says this is a "delightful romance" and that Sanders is "superb." Maltin must have confused this movie with something else. Sanders is snide and droll and superb, as usual, – you can imagine his delivery of the line regarding adultery, "Sometimes the chains of matrimony are so heavy they have to be carried by three," –but dull, wooden and dated describe this movie more accurately. The storyline itself, an autobiography with Sanders as a suave jewel thief, Francois Eugene Vidocq, who becomes chief of police but can hardly resist the lure of fine jewels, is entertaining enough, but it has the same kind of hollow historical Hollywood treatment that marred such period epics as *Marie Antoinette*, and certainly the deplorable *Forever Amber* (which screams for a classy remake). Though, in his defense, Sanders tries mightily to add some depth to his character, it is all for naught. I am an unabashed Douglas Sirk fan, but this is 1946, and it is one of Sirk's earliest American efforts, lacking many of the signature touches that would define his florid, breast-heaving potboilers. Sirk is just getting his feet wet here, and made a number of unmemorable films over the next ten years until he struck gold with *Magnificent Obsession*, and hit his stride, bombarding us with such estrogen-fests as *All That Heaven Allows*, *Written on the Wind*, and *Imitation of Life*. But *Scandal In Paris* is hardly his best work – a relatively low-budget affair with cheesy sets and ineffective costuming.

Positively awful George Sanders vehicle where he goes from being a thief to police czar.

While Sanders was an excellent character actor, he was certainly no leading man and this film proves it.

It is absolutely beyond stupidity. Gene Lockhart did provide some comic relief until a moment of anger led him to fire his gun with tragedy resulting.

Sadly, George Sanders and co-star Carol Landis committed suicide in real life. After making a film as deplorable as this, it is not shocking.

The usual appealing Signe Hasso is really nothing here.

There. That's the gist of it. Though the script is really quite good, the picture doesn't quite come off. Sanders is perhaps too much himself here to be very interesting -- his "ennuyeux" style seems just a little TOO little, here -- which creates something of a hole at the center. On the other hand, the supporting cast, with one exception (see below) is superb. First, Akim Tamiroff at 46 in a superb makeup that makes him look not a day over 25 -- he's Sanders's comic sidekick, who, in the last reel turns surprisingly (but satisfyingly) into his nemesis. It's an amazingly detailed performance, constantly interesting -- and really quite out of his usual line. Signe Hasso is lovely in quite a small role (considering her billing), and Gene Lockhart, Alan Napier, Alma Kruger, Vladimir Sokoloff, and, really, all the supporting cast (including, if I'm not mistaken, an unbilled -- and unaccented! -- Julius Tannen as the President of the Bank of France) are excellent and amusing. The child actress Jo Ann Williams (Kay Pierce of "Mildred Pierce" as well, and the child version of Hedy Lamarr in "The Strange Woman") is excellent, on a par with Margaret O'Brien, even. Superb art direction, too. Unfortunately, two elements, imho, are little short of disastrous. First, and most sadly, perhaps, is that Carole Landis is barely adequate in what is the more important of the two female star roles. Unnatural, stagy -- almost amateurish. (Incidentally, she bears a striking resemblance to Dolores Gray.) Finally, and also sad to say, Hanns Eisler's score, though filled with interesting music, is really not right. (In Jon Halliday's interview with Sirk, Sirk reveals that Eisler was not happy with the score -- and even wanted to re-do it completely, but there was no time.) There's just too much of it, and at times (especially in the scenes at the carousel -- one of which is crucial) rather heavy-handedly makes the wrong points. (To clarify, the carousel is identified with a kind of musical chinoiserie. Fine, a little heavy-handed, but all right. When Vidocq catches up with "the dragon" in a final showdown, it happens on the carousel. What do we hear? "Chinese" music. It doesn't work.) Of course this has been for long one of the Sirk rarities. Pace an earlier commentator, this is by no means Sirk at his low point (I nominate "Slightly French," followed closely by "No Room for the Groom" and "Mystery Submarine"); rather in search of a workable style for America. ("Summer Storm" and "Lured" -- Sirk's other "European" films of the forties -- are both much more successful.)