Mauvaise graine (1934)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Directors:

Alexander Esway
Billy Wilder

Writers:

Max Kolpé (screenplay)
H.G. Lustig (screenplay)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young man-about-Paris, cut off from his father's money, falls in with a picaresque gang of car thieves.

Plot Keywords:

Father | Paris | Doctor | Car Theft

Cast

Danielle Darrieux	...	Jeannette
Pierre Mingand	...	Henri Pasquier
Raymond Galle	...	Jean-la-Cravate
Paul Escoffier	...	Le docteur Pasquier
Michel Duran	...	Le chef
Jean Wall	...	Le zèbre
Marcel Maupi	...	L'homme au panama
Paul Velsa	...	L'homme aux cacahuètes
Georges Malkine	...	Le secrétaire
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Georges Cahuzac	...	Le monsieur
Gaby Héritier	...	Gaby

Also Known As:

Bad Blood
Bad Seed

Runtime:

86 min | USA:77 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Compagnie Nouvelle Commerciale

Trivia:

First film directed by Billy Wilder.

Movie Connections:

Version of The First Offence (1936)

A must-see for Billy Wilder fans

Let me start by saying, if you've never seen a Billy Wilder movie, see at least 5 to 10 before seeing this. You won't appreciate it much unless you want to see Wilder's roots. This is Wilder's directorial debut, and it shows. That's not to say its a bad picture (Wilder didn't do many bad pictures), it's just not great.

When Nazis took over Austria, Wilder fled to Berlin, and later to Paris. While he was there, he wrote and directed one movie. This is it. While the film is pretty rough and not nearly as tight as his later movies, it definitely shows early aspects of his later films. You will see lots of gags similar to those he would later write with I.A.L. Diamond. Particularly the scene at the water park. Watch carefully for a make-up mirror shot, he later duplicated in The Apartment.

In between scenes there are one to three minute montages of music and shots that don't do much for the story, and tend to make your mind wander off a bit. However, one of the film's most redeeming factors is Franz Waxman's score. This movie is not only a must-see for Wilder fans, but also for fans of movie scores, as Waxman's music can be heard in nearly 300 movies, including The Philadelphia Story, Gone With the Wind, Hitchcock classics such as Rear Window and Rebecca, and some of Wilder's American films like Sunset Blvd., and Stalag 17. Waxman's music helps deliver nearly all of the jokes, and keeps the movie flowing well.

The scene that stands out most in the movie, is probably the car chase (wonderfully scored by Waxman, by the way), which is not too shabby considering it was the first film Wilder directed, and on such a low budget.

This film is important for the careers of Billy Wilder and Franz Waxman and is a must see if you are a fan of either. Was also an early film for Danielle Darrieux who has been acting in films for over 70 years, and is still going.

7/10