125 rue Montmartre (1959)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Gilles Grangier

Writers:

André Gillois (novel)
Michel Audiard (dialogue)

Release Date:

9 September 1959 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel | Number In Title

Cast

Lino Ventura	...	Pascal
Andréa Parisy	...	Catherine Barrachet
Robert Hirsch	...	Didier Barrachet
Dora Doll	...	Germaine Montillier, dite Mémène
Jean Juillard
Pierre Collet
Lucien Raimbourg	...	Victor
Pierre Mirat	...	Le brigadier
Alfred Adam	...	Phillipe Barrachet
Jean Desailly	...	Commissaire Dodelot

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Company:

Orex Films

Shades of Hitchcock

Another of my favourite films to have been reissued on DVD by Réné Château, who, as usual, haven't had the good (commercial) sense to include subtitles on their DVD so that deaf French viewers and all other prospective foreign viewers can appreciate the film - incredible !

This story and the film are the embodiment of Paris of the late 1950's with all its charm - so different from the ugly Paris of today ! Lino Ventura, one of the great franco-Italian actors sadly no longer with us plays the part of Pascal a "crieur" or newspaper seller on the banks of the Seine who unfortunately gets involved in a sinister plot hatched by a woman and her lover who want to get rid of the woman's husband.

The story is very well done and the quality is equal to that of some of Alfred Hitchcock's earlier films. I love the theme music by Jean Yatove, which cannot be found any where on cd to my great dismay, and this music is typical of the late 1950's. So beyond the story itself ( which is more interesting first time round when you don't know the outcome ) the film has the interest for me as a living documentary of Paris of that era - we get to see quite a number of the different streets of Paris, the banks of the Seine, and how the "popular" or "working" parisian lives, as opposed to the touristy cabaret areas !

I would seriously recommend this film more than any other to someone wishing to "taste" the atmosphere of that era in Paris, an atmosphere long lost to the annals of time ! Another good film for this kind of thing would be "Voici le Temps des Assassins" starring Jean Gabin. One funny thing, the title 125 rue Montmartre has absolutely no relevance in the film at all, and would appear to have been thought up by its director on the spur of the moment for want of something better !