Le Dernier Tournant [The Last Turning, The Last Bend] **** (1939, Fernand Gravey, Michel Simon, Corinne Luchaire, Marcel Vallée) – Classic Movie Review 2,451

Pierre Chenal’s riveting 1939 French thriller Le Dernier Tournant is notable as the first film of James M Cain’s sizzling novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. Fernand Gravey and Corinne Luchaire star as lovers who plot to kill bar owner (Michel Simon). 

Director Pierre Chenal’s riveting 1939 French thriller Le Dernier Tournant is notable as the first film version of James M Cain’s sizzling 1934 hardboiled novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. The engrossing screenplay is written by Charles Spaak and Henri Torrès, happily following Cain’s plot closely.

Le Dernier Tournant stars Fernand Gravey and Corinne Luchaire as the young illicit lovers who plot to kill the woman’s old husband (Michel Simon), and then try to disguise their crime as an accident.

Gravey plays Frank Maurice, a drifter who hoves up in a remote garage truck stop, whose naïve owner Nick Marino is married to the earthily sexy Cora, who is half his age and despises him, having married him for his money. Frank accepts Nick’s offer of work, but instantly falls for Cora, who soon asks Frank to help her get rid of Nick for good.

It is a compelling, carefully detailed film of the fascinating story, with the canny Simon’s superlative performance comfortably overshadowing the other two leading actors, though, even so, they are both well cast and effective. 

Also in the cast are Marcel Vallée as the judge, Florence Marly, Robert Le Vigan, and René Bergeron.

It commands great respect in its own right, but is also valuable as comparison with Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione (1943), the Lana Turner-John Garfield remake The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and the Jack Nicholson-Jessica Lange version The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981). It is an extraordinary and rare case of four exceptional, very different films made from the same material.

Le Dernier Tournant [The Last Turning, The Last Bend] is directed by Pierre Chenal, runs 90 minutes, is made by Gladiator Productions, is distributed by Compagnie Cinématographique de France, is shot by Christian Matras and Claude Renoir, and is scored by Jean Wiener.

Release date: 17 May 1939 (Paris).

The cast are Fernand Gravey as Frank, Michel Simon as Nick Marino, Corinne Luchaire as Cora Marino, Marcel Vallée as the judge, Robert Le Vigan as Le cousin maître-chanteur, Etienne Decroux as Le patron du bistrot, Florence Marly as Madge, la dompteuse, and René Bergeron.

Fernand Gravey starred as Carl Linden in the 1933 film Bitter Sweet, the first film adaptation of Noël Coward’s 1929 operetta.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,451

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