Yes, Raoul André, best known for his very very light comedies, directed this serious drama with lot of characters from various social ranks. The story is very effective in crossing and double crossing each character, poor and rich struggling, very fascinating crescendo story. Philippe Lemaire is great as the poor character trying to find out the truth, surrounded by charming Nicole Courcel and Dominique Wilms. Don't miss Alexander d'Arcy, a very peculiar character. Next movie by Raoul André, Les Pépées Font La Loi, is a top comedy with very fine girls (mmmh Claudine Dupuis, Raoul's wife Louise Carletti, Dominique Wilms again, ...) struggling against gangsters (Louis de Funès as Jeannot la Bonne Affaire).
2 Reviews
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ulicknormanowen29 February 2024
The first reviewer , an old French cinema connoisseur,is right ;the early Raoul André efforts are quite watchable ("fiacre 13" "marchande d'illusions" ) ;it's only in the second half of the fifties that things begin to deteriorate and that his last "works "such " le bourgeois gentil mec " hit rock bottom.
"Les Clandestines ",although its subject is as old as the hill (the call girls ring, drug-trafficking ,heroin, cocaine,you name it......)features a rather inventive screenplay .
A young man ,just out of clink ,finds his grand father ,an assistant director, dead (he hung himself) and wants to see right through this suicide .A girl ,a model ,gets fired and ,badly advised by a so called friend, contemplates deluxe prostitution.
Both these plots seem parallel ,and the way the screenwriters link them together is rather smart ,in this kind of movie. The good lawyer's wife photograph in the infamous album is a good trick.
Philippe Lemaire , one of the romantic young leads of the French fifties , portrays the naive young lad ,forced to fight a gang of procurers ; private joke :when the young guy fights an evil chauffeur , one can hear a song by Lemaire's real life wife , Juliette Gréco ("on dira" =people will say" )
Maria Mauban ,cast against type, is a madam ,the forerunner of "Madame Claude " , who hides her shady business behind the respectable job of a secondhand bookseller , searching valuable editions of Marcel Proust for men ,who are also fond of petites femmes. Nicole Courcel ,short of the readies, will be her new (and last) prey .
Humor is welcome: when the old fogey , a bouquet in his hand ,comes to the tryst ,he finds the whole household on the landing,much to madam's dismay.
Watch out for louis Jourdan's and Claude Dauphin 's very brief appearance .
"Les Clandestines ",although its subject is as old as the hill (the call girls ring, drug-trafficking ,heroin, cocaine,you name it......)features a rather inventive screenplay .
A young man ,just out of clink ,finds his grand father ,an assistant director, dead (he hung himself) and wants to see right through this suicide .A girl ,a model ,gets fired and ,badly advised by a so called friend, contemplates deluxe prostitution.
Both these plots seem parallel ,and the way the screenwriters link them together is rather smart ,in this kind of movie. The good lawyer's wife photograph in the infamous album is a good trick.
Philippe Lemaire , one of the romantic young leads of the French fifties , portrays the naive young lad ,forced to fight a gang of procurers ; private joke :when the young guy fights an evil chauffeur , one can hear a song by Lemaire's real life wife , Juliette Gréco ("on dira" =people will say" )
Maria Mauban ,cast against type, is a madam ,the forerunner of "Madame Claude " , who hides her shady business behind the respectable job of a secondhand bookseller , searching valuable editions of Marcel Proust for men ,who are also fond of petites femmes. Nicole Courcel ,short of the readies, will be her new (and last) prey .
Humor is welcome: when the old fogey , a bouquet in his hand ,comes to the tryst ,he finds the whole household on the landing,much to madam's dismay.
Watch out for louis Jourdan's and Claude Dauphin 's very brief appearance .
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