Remorques [Stormy Waters] *** (1941, Jean Gabin, Madeleine Renaud, Michèle Morgan) – Classic Movie Review 11,347

Remorques [Stormy Waters] (1941): ‘A tempestuous love story in the great French style.’

Director Jean Grémillon’s 1941 black and white French romantic drama Remorques [Stormy Waters] is a telling saga of amour-fou, centring on a bizarre love triangle: sea-going tugboat captain André Laurent (Jean Gabin), his mistress Catherine (Michèle Morgan) and his terminally ill wife, Yvonne (Madeleine Renaud).

They have been married for ten years, and she does not want to tell him she has heart disease, craving a quiet life. André meets the beautiful Catherine while rescuing a ship captained by her husband, whom she wants to leave.

Based on a novel by Roger Vercel, it is a claustrophobic tale, meticulously crafted and marked by well-handled, low-key acting, with the two great French stars Gabin and Morgan commanding total attention and respect.

With its visual style (Alexandre Trauner’s production designs are immaculate) and intelligent scripting (by Jacques Prévert, André Cayatte, Roger Vercel and Charles Spaak), it is highly satisfying to the emotions and the senses.

Also in the cast are Jean Marchat, Fernand Ledoux, Charles Blavette, Nane Germon, Jean Dasté, René Bergeron, Henri Poupon, Anne Laurens, Marcel Pérès, Marcel Duhamel, Henri Pons, Sinoël, Alain Cuny, Robert Dhéry, and Henri Crémieux.

The rights to the novel by Roger Vercel and subsequent screenplay by Charles Spaak were sold to Joseph Lucachevitch, director of Société d’Exploitation et de Distribution de Films (SEDIF), based in France, who asked Jacques Prévert to rewrite it.

It was released after the war by MGM in cinemas in the US (1946) and UK (1947), and in The Criterion Collection in 2012 in the US on DVD.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,347

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