Marie-Octobre **** (1959, Danielle Darrieux, Bernard Blier, Serge Reggiani, Bernard Blier, Paul Meurisse, Noël Roquevert, Lino Ventura, Robert Dalban) – Classic Movie Review 10,864

‘Eight men and a woman… one betrayed the man Marie-Octobre really loved.’

Director Julien Duvivier’s 1959 black and white French drama Marie-Octobre [Secret Meeting] stars Danielle Darrieux, who is superb as Marie-Octobre in this gripping whodunit in which the former members of a WWII wartime French Resistance movement gather in a house in Paris to uncover a traitor and find out who betrayed their murdered leader 15 years ago.

Marie-Octobre has met someone who says their resistance group was betrayed from the inside, so she collects all nine members of the group together to find out the truth about the betrayal.

Most of the action takes place in a single room where the claustrophobic and tense atmosphere thickens inexorably thanks to the fine performances and Duvivier’s taut handling, using long takes as pioneered by Hitchcock’s Rope.

It also stars Serge Reggiani, Bernard Blier, Paul Meurisse, Noël Roquevert, Lino Ventura, Paul Guers, Paul Frankeur, Robert Dalban, Jeanne Fusier-Gir and Daniel Invernel. Fine cast, fine film.

The screenplay by Julien Duvivier (scenario), Jacques Robert (scenario) and Henri Jeanson (dialogue) is based on the novel by Jacques Robert.

It is shot at Studios de Boulogne, Avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément, Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

Marie-Octobre [Secret Meeting] is directed by Julien Duvivier, runs 102 minutes, is made by Abbey Films, Doxa Films, Orex Films and Société Française du Théatre et Cinéma, is released by Pathé, is written by Julien Duvivier (scenario), Jacques Robert (scenario) and Henri Jeanson (dialogue), based on the novel by Jacques Robert is shot in black and white by Robert Lefebvre, is produced by Lucien Viard, is scored by Jean Yatove and is designed by Georges Wakhévitch.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,864

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