Panique [Panic] **** (1946, Viviane Romance, Michel Simon, Paul Bernard) – Classic Movie Review 12,592

Julien Duvivier’s 1946 French crime drama film Panique [Panic] stars Viviane Romance and Michel Simon. Atmospheric shots and hints of sex and violence add extra flavour and spice to this tense, moody and compelling adaptation of a Georges Simenon novel.

Director Julien Duvivier’s dark and nihilistic 1946 French black and white mystery thriller/ crime drama film Panique [Panic] stars Viviane Romance, Michel Simon, and Paul Bernard.

Atmospheric shots and, for the time of its release, fairly explicit hints of sex and violence add extra spice and flavour to this tense, moody and very compelling adaptation of a Georges Simenon novel, Les Fiançailles de Monsieur Hire.

In the story set in the suburbs of Paris, an old maid spinster has just been murdered, her money stolen from her handbag and her body found outside in a vacant lot when a carnival comes to town. Alice (Viviane Romance), a young woman who has just been released from prison after taking the blame for a robbery committed by her boyfriend, Alfred (Paul Bernard), arrives and meets up with him again.

Alfred initially denies it, but soon reveals to Alice that he was sleeping with the woman and killed her for her money. But Alice reveals that someone else knows of his crime. It is Alice’s neighbour, the taciturn, eccentric and misanthropic ageing man Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon), who has taken to spying on Alice from his hotel bedroom window as she undresses. The couple try to blame him for the spinster’s murder, stirring up the prejudiced locals into a violent mob. Seduced by Alice, Monsieur Hire falls deeply in love with her and wants to marry her. The wicked Alice plants the murdered woman’s handbag behind the radiator in his room.

Panique [Panic] is a special film. It is a very good story, extremely well told. There is splendid work, as always, by the great Simon, femme fatale Viviane Romance vamps to the manner born, Paul Bernard makes a compellingly nasty little spiv, and there is attentive, dedicated direction by Duvivier. There is a satisfying series of tense, compellingly written and acted sequences along the way to a brilliantly handled, supremely dark climax, when Alfred and Alice think they have successfully framed Hire, who flees to the rooftops.

It is shot by cinematographer Nicolas Hayer at the Victorine Studios in Nice, with great flair, on impressive and imaginative sets designed by art director Serge Piménoff, with attractive music by Jean Wiener. It is all very fragrant and atmospheric, with the slightly artificial look entirely charming, adding a precious claustrophobic, bad-dream-like quality.

It is remade by Patrice Leconte in 1989 as Monsieur Hire with Michel Blanc and Sandrine Bonnaire.

The cast are Michel Simon as M Hire, Viviane Romance as Alice, Max Dalban as Capoulade, Émile Drain as M Breteuil, Guy Favières as M Sauvage, Florencie as Inspector Marcelin, Charles Dorat as Inspector Michelet, Lucas Gridoux as M Fortin, Marcel Pérès as Cermanutti, Lita Recio as Marcelle,  J F Martial as M Joubet, Paul Bernard as Alfred, and Suzanne Desprès as La cartomancienne, Max Dalban, Emil Drain, Guy Favières, Louis Florencie, Marcel Pérès, Michel Ardan, Michèle Auvray, Luicel Carol, and Olivier Darrieux.

Panique premiered at Palais de Chaillot, Paris, on 19 December 1946 and opened in Paris on 15 January 1947. It opened in New York on 27 November 1947. It was a failure with critics and the public, thanks to being such a dark and nihilistic film. Duvivier commented: ‘We are far from people who love each other.’ That idea did not appeal to the French much in 1946. People are portrayed like prejudiced idiots, prepared to take the law into their own hands completely thoughtlessly, much as in Alfred Hitchcock films. Panique has plenty of Hitchcock flavour.

Les Fiançailles de M. Hire (Monsieur Hire’s Engagement) is a 1933 short novel by Belgian writer Georges Simenon in 11  chapters using third-person narrative.

Georges Simenon sold the manuscript of his novel at an auction in 1943, and gave the proceeds to the prisoners of World War Two.

A Fine Romance.

Viviane Romance (born Pauline Ronacher Ortmanns; 4 July 1912 – 25 September 1991) was a French star actress from Julien Duvivier’s La Belle Équipe (1936) to the late 1950s. She played dozens of femme fatales, fallen women and vamps.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,592

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