Au-delà des grilles [Le mura di Malapaga] [The Walls of Malapaga] **** (1949, Jean Gabin, Isa Miranda, Vera Talchi) – Classic Movie Review 9673

War-torn Italian slums in Genoa provide a stable background for director René Clément’s moving depiction of a tragic encounter between Pierre Arrignon (Jean Gabin), a French fugitive killer pursued by the law, and a frustrated Italian waitress, Marta Manfredini (Isa Miranda), and her daughter Cecchina (Vera Talchi).

René Clément’s poetic 1949 French/ Italian film Au-delà des grilles [Le mura di Malapaga] won him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1949 and Isa Miranda’s outstanding performance won her the Best Actress award there, though it is Jean Gabin’s superb, iconic performance that provides the glue to hold it all together.

This depressing and bleak, yet extremely powerful movie won the Academy Awards’ Honorary Award for the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States in 1950, as voted by the Board of Governors.

It is written by Jean Aurenche (adaptation), Pierre Bost (adaptation), Cesare Zavattini (screenplay), Suso Cecchi d’Amico (screenplay) and Alfredo Guarini (screenplay).

Also in the cast are Andrea Checchi, Robert Dalban, Ave Ninchi, Checco Rissone, Renato Malavasi, Carlo Tamberlani and Vittorio Duse.

It is also known as Beyond the Gates, Le Mura di Malapaga and The Walls of Malapaga.

Despite the Academy Award win, the film did not do well at the French box office, and the next five years brought repeated box office failures for Gabin, whose film career seemed headed for oblivion till he made a comeback with Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954).

Au-delà des grilles [Le mura di Malapaga] [The Walls of Malapaga] is directed by René Clément, runs 95 minutes, is made by Italia Produzione and Francinex, is distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1949) (Italy) and Films International (1950) (US), is written by Jean Aurenche (adaptation), Pierre Bost (adaptation), Cesare Zavattini (screenplay), Suso Cecchi d’Amico (screenplay) and Alfredo Guarini (screenplay), is shot in black and white by Louis Page, is produced by Alfredo Guarini and Robert Chabert, is scored by Roman Vlad and is designed by Piero Filippone and Luigi Gervasi.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9673

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