One can only imagine what Peter Lorre, who had been a morphine addict since 1928 (during which time he had become an internationally acclaimed film star), made of this hystrionic anti-drug thriller in which he was cast as a wicked pusher who will stop at nothing to keep an innocent young singer as his client. As in most films in which he was cast as the putative villain, he's by far the most attractive and interesting creature in sight. His flashy pinstripes and spats (meant to mark him as a member of the criminal class) look good on him, as does his shaved head, a style that he would sport to even more advantage a few years later in "Mad Love."
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Anne_Sharp19 July 2001
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morrison-dylan-fan20 March 2019After taking a detour by watching the very good 1964 Film Noir Marked Eyes, (also reviewed)I decided to continue viewing French titles from 1932. Going for the first title on the viewing pile,I got set for a dope viewing.
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Filmed simultaneously with the German film Der Weisse Daemon and joined by co-director Roger Le Bon, director Kurt Gerron, (who turned down offers from Peter Lorre and Josef von Sternberg's agent for Hollywood projects, and was murdered with his wife Olga by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1944) does very well in bringing out stylishly flourishes under the tight production schedule, with the excellent extended opening tracking shots on a cruise ship establishing the heroic hero status of Henri,and over saturated lights making Liliane look like she is wasting herself away.
Joined by writer Georges Neveux in adapting their German script, the screenplay by Neveux/ Philipp Lothar Mayring & Fritz Zeckendorf (who IMDb do not list as having been killed by the Nazis in 1943 in Auschwitz-Birkenau) is a fine mix of Melodrama and Thriller, as Liliane's descent into drug addition brings the drama as Henri tries to free her from it, whilst the hands of "bossu" (and his ingenious use of blanc vinyl to record faked messages) push Liliane deeper into the abyss. Caught between bossu and Henri, sweet Daniele Parola gives a very good performance as Liliane,whose singing ambitions Parola has get chipped away by the drugs. Sliding Parola deeper into her addiction, Peter Lorre gives a wonderfully slippery turn as bossu, whose calm, matter of fact manner is used by Lorre as a veil for ruthlessness that leaves Liliane dying for a hit. -
dbdumonteil10 January 2006Peter Lorre had starred in his lifetime part (M) the precedent year and anything he would do afterward would be necessary a letdown.
It is of course,although he only supports here ,playing the part of a drug trafficker,who drops his stuff into the sea when the ship docks.
The story begins in a very strange way:the hero(Pierre Murat) saves a child's life -he was getting drowned- and his father is a millionaire.The story does not seem to have any connection which what follows and you have to wait till the last pictures to see the two stories hang together-in a far-fetched way- The courageous young man comes home to be confronted with the fact that his sister has become a junkie.We think that the movie will be his struggle to help her sibling fight against addiction.Not only the girl does not look like a junkie at all -she is always fresh as a daisy- but the plot gets itself lost in uninteresting gangsters stories in which even Peter Lorre does not play his game well.
Why restoring this French-German co production ?