Les Portes de la Nuit: Marcel Carne (02.03.09)

Apparently intended as a vehicle for Gabin and Dietrich which would have provided a completely different film, this moody evocation of Paris in the final year of World War II is not that good. Perhaps it is wrong to expect name directors to provude the goods in all their films (cf. John Ford and 'Gideon's Day') but this did not click. A rather melodramatic tale which was not helped by the wooden acting of Miss Nattier as the love interest, it has some nice touches - the sub-pot of the daughter and her new boyfriend, for instance, with Dany Robin shining as the young girl - but the main interest of the film now is like to be the appeance of Yves Montand in an early role and the theme music known in the USA and UK as 'Autumn Leaves' from the Johnny Mercer versiopn of the original Jacques Prevert verses.