Le Corbeau (1943) by H.G. Clouzot

[Ann Harding]

As somebody opened a thread on French crime films, I think it's quite timely to start one on one of the best French film ever made. It's one of my favourite pictures ever and last friday, I visited for the first time, the little village where it was shot: Montfort L'Amaury (about 40 km W of Paris). It was a spooky experience to see for real all the famous spots from the film. The city hasn't changed much since 1943....I'll take you for a visit!
The film starts with a overview of the town where the church spire is very noticeable:


Here is the cemetery:


The church spire:


The gates of the cemetery (which still creaks like in the film ....*shudder*)


And now, let me tell you a few things about the film!


(From l to r) Dr Germain (Pierre Fresnay) read the first anonymous letter; Dr Germain chats about the letters with Dr Vorzet (Pierre Larquey); Denise (Ginette Leclerc) bites Germain's hand.

We are in the small city of Saint Robin where the mysterious Dr Germain -recently arrived- starts to receive some poison pen letters signed 'le corbeau' (the raven). Soon the whole city is swamped with these letters revealing one dark secret after another....

I don't want to give any spoilers as this film has a fantastic built-up. Every character of this film is magnificently characterised from the lead parts to the smallest supporting role. This is probably one of the most relentlessly dark story I have ever seen. Clouzot shows the worst recess of the human mind. From the mysterious Dr Germain who lives alone like an hermit, Denise the nymphomaniac, Marie Corbin, the nasty nurse to the strange Dr Vorzet; none of the character is shown under a great light. But, the dialogue sparkles with dark humor. There isn't a single useless word in this razor sharp script. The editing and scene transitions are absolutely brilliant.
The film has been released by Criterion but is now OOP. Fortunately, it's also available on R2 UK DVD.

Has anybody ever seen it?

[Ollie]

Wifey-poo enjoyed it but never saw it available when it was in-print. I meant to also thank you for getting me to pay attention to the available A-H DVDs; we've recently enjoyed her Leslie Howard-Myrna Loy film ANIMAL KINGDOM. Myrna's presence alone would have made me snag this one, but I was happy to find it first under a search for A-H. au chapeau

[moira finnie]

Those are great photos showing the cinematic and actual places where Clouzot's Le Corbeau (1943) took place.

I haven't seen this memorable film in years since a murky print was shown at college along with the American version by Otto Preminger, called The Thirteenth Letter (1951), (the print of the Preminger film was pristine, but who knows where or when this might appear on dvd.) Happily, though the Clouzot version is no longer being produced by Criterion, you can still purchase it new from Amazon for $26.99 & it is listed on Netflix in the U.S. It is well worth a look. I've just added it to my queue to see how I'll react to it now.

One of the aspects of the film that I find interesting is the claustrophobic feel of the small town, in which betrayals, real and imagined, become magnified as the letters increase the underlying fears, pettiness and anger of the citizens. Historically, it seems to hold up a psychological mirror to the guilt-ridden emotions of an occupied France, despite having been made under the auspices of a German production company in France.

Btw, unlike most inferior remakes, the American version of this classic, The Thirteenth Letter (1951), sets the story in a small Canadian town in winter and offers Michael Rennie & Charles Boyer some fine acting opportunities as the leads, surrounded by many brooding females (Linda Darnell, Constance Smith, & Françoise Rosay). While the story is without the French political implications of the first version, there is an echo of the growing cultural shift taking place in Cold War America as the undercurrent of hysteria seeps through the respectable veneer of all the lives of the inhabitants of the town.

Boyer & Rennie in The Thirteenth Letter (1951).

Filmed on location in a wintry Quebec, The Thirteenth Letter (1951) deserves to be seen again on dvd, as does the much better known original, Le Corbeau. Both these films would be a fine companion piece to one of the few Hitchcock movies that might be described as "neglected"--I Confess (1951), which was also filmed in Quebec City, taking advantage of the dark, cobbled streets, brooding horizontals and verticals of the many large stone buildings there to reinforce the mounting sense of entrapment in the movie. Like the other films, it takes a look at issues of appearance and reality, secrets, truth and belief, with a fine performance from Montgomery Clift and the usual Hitchcockian fillips, (some of which probably owed more to Clouzot's work than is recognized.)

Karl Malden as a cop and Clift as a priest with something to hide in I Confess.

[Mr. Arkadin]

A great film that not enough people know about, Le Corbeau is an amazing piece of work that is part whodunnit, part noir, and part French resistance. Indeed, the Nazis banned it on release knowing full well it referred to them. The Criterion print is beautiful (yep, I have a copy) and well worth the dough (I did not realize it was OOP now). This is one of those rare films that lives up to all the hype--catch it if you can.

[Alan K.]

The Thirteenth Letter (1951) was screened at an Otto Preminger retro at the Egyptian Theatre back in January of this year. I watched a good condition 16mm print several years ago in San Francisco.

Helmed by Preminger at the end of his Fox tenure, it is an interesting film in the noir style and as Moira indicated, overlooked and underappreciated. There is a pervasive sense of depressive melancholy throughout the film which seems right in step with the story. I thought Charles Boyer nearly stole the picture away from the stolid Rennie and the visually alluring Darnell. Written by Howard Koch, lensed by Joseph La Shelle and scored by Alex North.

Interesting sidebar was that Preminger's-then wife was allegedly having an affair with Rennie before the shoot that Otto discovered while countersuing for divorce and having his wife shadowed by a detective.

[moira finnie]

The Thirteenth Letter (1951) was screened at an Otto Preminger retro at the Egyptian Theatre back in January of this year. I watched a good condition 16mm print several years ago in San Francisco.

Helmed by Preminger at the end of his Fox tenure, it is an interesting film in the noir style and as Moira indicated, overlooked and underappreciated. There is a pervasive sense of depressive melancholy throughout the film which seems right in step with the story. I thought Charles Boyer nearly stole the picture away from the stolid Rennie and the visually alluring Darnell. Written by Howard Koch, lensed by Joseph La Shelle and scored by Alex North

Moxie, are there any chances that this Preminger film might be issued on dvd in the near future--or are there too many legal/technical problems tying it up in limbo somehow?

Interesting sidebar was that Preminger's-then wife was allegedly having an affair with Rennie before the shoot that Otto discovered while countersuing for divorce and having his wife shadowed by a detective.

Jeez, I did not know that, Mr. Rennie, (who was said to be quite a dashing figure with the ladies), was involved with Marion Mill, Otto Preminger's first wife too! According to the recent Foster Hirsch bio of Preminger, Rennie was entertaining one Mary Gardner, a striking model & artist, on the set of The Thirteenth Letter. According to Preminger, who was going through a divorce from his first wife, Ms. Mill at the time, Mary Gardner's attentions soon shifted from Michael Rennie ("a mere contract player" in Otto's view) to the director (who may have been, by that time, "a legend in his own mind"). Long story short, Gardner marries Preminger at the end of '51, they separate later in the decade after Mary Gardner starts keeping company with Rennie again by about 1957 & the Premingers divorce in 1959. Rennie & Gardner never marry, despite all the sturm and drang. Maybe that's just as well.

Dang, the participants in this confused rondelay should have had numbers on their backs so you could keep them straight!. Btw, despite my irreverent remarks, until the '60s, I think Preminger's movies were terrific.
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Boy, I apologize for the digression that this Le Corbeau thread took. Aside from this film and the masterful Les Diaboliques (1955), what other Henri-Georges Clouzot movies would you recommend?

[charliechaplinfan]

Thanks for the pictures, they're very interesting to look at. Nice to know that some things don't change. Looks like this is one for me next pay day.

[Alan K.]

Moxie, are there any chances that this Preminger film might be issued on dvd in the near future--or are there too many legal/technical problems tying it up in limbo somehow?

I don't know anything definitive about The 13th Letter, but if Fox keeps putting out film noir DVD's, they will eventually get to this title.

[Ann Harding]

Boy, I apologize for the digression that this Le Corbeau thread took. Aside from this film and the masterful Les Diaboliques (1955), what other Henri-Georges Clouzot movies would you recommend?

No need to apologize, Moira! Actually, I had read about Preminger's remake, but I have never seen it. It looks like worth a try!

Actually, Les Diaboliques (1955) was shot in the same village as Le Corbeau (1943). And Clouzot bought a house in the village. It's now a hotel:


As for my favourite Clouzot pictures, I love his first film L'assassin habite au 21 (The Murderer Lives at Number 21, 1942). It's a very charming comedy-thriller with Pierre Fresnay as the police superintendant Wens. He has an impossible girlfriend who annoys him constantly, Miss Mila-Malou (Hilarious Suzy Delair who was Clouzot's girlfriend at the time). I am also very fond of Quai des Orfèvres (Jenny Lamour, 1947). It's also a murder mystery with a lot of laughs with Louis Jouvet as the police inspector. You are probably familiar with Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear, 1953), another very tense thriller. I have also seen his only comedy: Miquette et sa mère (1950) where a host of great French actors are hamming away in the most hilarious way. I saw the film at the National Film Theatre in London where everybody was howling with laughter.

[charliechaplinfan]

Last night I watched Le Corbeau. I'd been so fascinated by what has been said on this thread I had to get it. I loved both Les Diaboliques and Quai des Orfevres. I'm glad to report that this film is just as fascinating. I watched it with subtitles which certainly seemed to pick up on some of the subtleties and humour in the script. I'm hoping it's picked up on them all.

Clouzot conveys the closeness and claustrophobia of this town were everyone's secrets are being aired by a poison letter writer but who is this person who knows and makes up things and why is he/she stirring up the community.

Like all good whodunnits I thought I knew who had done it, then I changed my mind and changed it back again before deciding finally on the person I'd thought of in the first place.

A great film and one I feel I must watch again to pick up on every little detail that I might have missed the first time.