Destins (1946)
Directed by Richard Pottier

Film Review

Tino Rossi is the ultimate in acquired tastes, so one's appreciation of Destins, one of several films to which he lent his vocal and acting talents in the 1940s, is inevitably coloured by whether you think he is a great chansonnier or an instrument of torture of brain-frying proportions.  Destins was one of many films directed by Richard Pottier to showcase Rossi or his contemporary Luis Mariano, and its main claim to fame is that it launched what would become Rossi's most enduring number, Petit Papa Noël.  Despite being possibly the schmaltziest thing ever committed to vinyl, despite being the most flagrant breach of the Geneva convention on human rights, this musical atrocity is still the most successful 'song' (for want of a better word) ever to come out of France, the only one to sell over five million copies worldwide.  Tino Rossi fans and other assorted masochists will be glad to hear that Petit Papa Noël is performed no fewer than three times in Pottier's film, along with several other numbers which are marginally less likely to induce you to throw yourself off the nearest tall building.

To be fair, Destins is one of Rossi's more respectable films (as atrocities such as Son dernier Noël (1952) and Le Gardian (1946) amply bear out). It helps that, for once, the singer is given the chance to show he can act rather than just fall back on his own blandly likeable persona.  Here, Rossi gets to play two character, twin brothers, who, predictably, are polar opposites (a plot idea already used in the Fernandel comedy Raphaël le tatoué).  It is the evil brother who, perversely, we end up liking most, and Rossi deserves some praise for making him an interesting and plausible character, not just a two-dimensional villain (such a shame this isn't true for the other brother, who shows Rossi at his dullest).  Thankfully, there's a more than capable supporting cast to prevent the spectator from succumbing to a fatal overdose of Tino Rossi.  Armand Bernard supplies most of the humour as Rossi's hopelessly inept impresario, Mila Parély makes a superbly wicked moll, and Micheline Francey brings a touch of sincerity which is lacking elsewhere (assisted by her adorable three-year old son, Thierry).  Gabrielle Fontan and Paul Demange also help to break the monotony with their well-timed incursions into the dreary plot.

One thing that is hard to forgive (partly because it is so out of place, but mainly because it is so unimaginably irritating) is a pointless digression into a talent contest near the film's sagging midpoint.  It's bad enough, surely, to listen to Tino Rossi crooning (with the merciless glee of a psycopathic gestapo torturer)  Y'a d'l'amour, but to have to suffer this fate after having already heard three other renditions immediately beforehand (all just as bad) is torture of the worst kind.  Pottier's lack of artistic judgement is equally apparent in the film's set-piece musical numbers, which achieve only a fraction of their potential and look pretty amateurish compared with what was being offered by Hollywood at the time.  Tino Rossi is Marmite in human form.  If you love him, you will love Destins.  If, on the other hand, you rank him alongside Hitler and Stalin as a fiend who has inflicted untold suffering on millions, and there are no tall buildings or ear plugs in the vicinity, it's best to give it a very wide berth.  As far as Christmas films go, this one is unequivocally - (please supply your own adjective).

Film Synopsis

Thanks to his impresario, the singer André Cartier soon becomes a huge music hall star in Paris.  The pride of his life is his five-year-old son Jacky, whom he brings up with the help of his nurse Malika and secretary Jacqueline.  One day, André is contacted by his twin brother Fred, a nasty piece of work who has just been released from prison.  André gives Fred some money, on the understanding that from now on he will pursue an honest life.  Naturally, Fred is too old to change his ways.  Having squandered this money, he contrives a plan to extort a greater sum from his brother.  With the help of his mistress Clara, Fred uses his resemblance to André to abduct Jacky.  When he learns that his beloved son has been kidnapped, André is devastated...