Les Inconnus dans la Maison [Strangers in the House] **** (1942, Raimu, Juliette Faber, Gabrielle Fontan) Classic Movie Review 10,055

Director Henri Decoin’s 1942 thriller Les Inconnus dans la Maison [Strangers in the House] is based on a novel by Georges Simenon, with a screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and stars Raimu, Juliette Faber, Gabrielle Fontan, Jean Tissier and Jacques Baumer.

In a provincial French town, an ancient, boozy downcast lawyer, Maître Hector Loursat (a brilliant Raimu) attempts to solve a murder mystery to get his daughter Nicole (Juliette Faber)’s idle boyfriend Émile Manu (André Reybaz) off a murder rap.

Hector hears gunshots in his vast, shabby provincial mansion and finds a man lying dead on an old bed in the attic. Hector finds his daughter has a secret life with a group of youngsters from town who have been having regular meetings in the attic.

Emile is suspected of the murder and arrested, and asks Hector Loursat to be his defence attorney.

The brilliantly constructed story is superbly played and exquisitely handled, creating a high-tension crime thriller.

Les Inconnus dans la Maison is one of the great films of the French Occupation, which was first released in 1942 with an anti-Semitic short film Les Corrupteurs and eventually banned by the French authorities after the war for anti-Semitism. The character played by Marcel Mouloudji was called Ephraïm Luska, but when the film was finally re-released a few years later with a re-recorded soundtrack, the character was renamed Amédée Luska and his being Jewish was erased.

It is remade as Stranger in the House (1967) with James Mason, Geraldine Chaplin, and Bobby Darin, and remade again as L’inconnu dans la maison in 1992 with Jean-Paul Belmondo as Loursat.

Also in the cast are Jacques Baumer, Jean Tissier, Lucien Coedel, Noël Roquevert, Héléna Manson, André Reybaz, Marcel Mouloudji, Marc Doelnitz, Tania Fédor Jacques Denoël, Pierre Ringel, Pierre Fresnay, Gabrielle Fontan, Martine Carol, Raymond Cordy, Paul Faivre, Daniel Gélin and Bernard Noël.

Les Inconnus dans la Maison is directed by Henri Decoin, runs 95 minutes, is made by Continental Films and Flag Films, released by L’Alliance Cinématographique Européenne (ACE) (1942) (France) and Lopert Films (1949) (US), is written by Henri-Georges Clouzot (adaptation and dialogue), based on the novel by Georges Simenon, shot in black and white by Jules Kruger, produced by Alfred Greven and scored by Roland Manuel, with Production Design by Guy de Gastyne.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,055

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