La Chienne ***** (1931, Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant) – Classic Movie Review 10,145

Bank clerk Maurice Legrand (Michel Simon), married to ghastly Adèle (Magdeleine Bérubet), murders his faithless prostitute-mistress Lulu (Janie Marèse), then pins the blame on her pimp Dede (Georges Flamant) whom she loves, in director Jean Renoir’s stylish 1931 crime drama La Chienne [The Bitch].

The pulp story is the stuff of pure melodrama, but great French director Renoir creates real people out of the stereotypes and, filming naturalistically, turns Paris’s bohemian Montmartre district into a further character in the drama.

Stirring and passionate, as well as exquisitely played and beautifully executed, it is a bona fide French cinema classic, with Renoir working at near the peak of his powers in his first sound movie.

Georges Flamant and Janie Marèse in La chienne (1931).

Behind the scenes, a tragic story unfolded as least as melodramatic as the film’s story. In real life, the 36-year-old Simon fell for the young Janie Marèse, who was in love with Georges Flamant, and after the film was completed the latter couple crashed on a Riviera road in Sainte-Maxime, Var, France, and Marèse was killed in the car driven by Flamant. She was aged 23.

Jean Renoir also writes the screenplay, adapted from the novel by Georges de La Fouchardière’s and the play version by André Mouëzy-Éon.

Fritz Lang used the story again for his 1945 American remake Scarlet Street.

Also in the quality cast are Jean Gehret, Roger Gaillard, Romain Bouquet, Pierre Desty, Mlle Doryans, Lucien Mancini, Jane Pierson, Christian Argentin, Max Dalban, and Magdeleine Bérubet.

La Chienne [The Bitch] is directed by Jean Renoir, runs 95 minutes, is made by Les Établissements Braunberger-Richebé, is released by Les Établissements Braunberger-Richebé (1931) (France), is written by Jean Renoir, shot in black and white by Theodor Sparkuhl (cinematography) and Roger Hubert (camera operator), produced by Pierre Braunberger, Roger Richebé and Jean Renoir, and designed by Marcel Courmes.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,145

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