L'Homme aux clefs d'or (1956)
Directed by Léo Joannon

Film Review

Although little appreciated by the critics, Léo Joannon was a filmmaker whose films proved consistently popular with French cinema-going audiences in the 1940s and 50s.  After Le Secret de soeur Angèle, a popular melodrama starring Sophie Desmarets and Raf Vallone, Joannon had another box office winner with L'Homme aux clefs d'or, released in Paris on 7th November 1956.  The scenario is a familiar one: a respectable man is brought down by the cunning of others and when he has the opportunity to take his revenge he seizes it with both hands, becoming a sort of exterminating angel.

Whilst the film is well-written and well-directed (Joannon may not have been a great auteur but he was a versatile and highly competent filmmaker), it does unfortunately have a moralising tone and doesn't fully exploit the ambiguities of the central protagonist.  The ending is also a little predictable, but not to the extent of spoiling one's enjoyment of the film in its entirety.  Without doubt, the film's main attraction is Pierre Fresnay in another of his memorable character portrayals.  Alec Guinness's favourite actor, Fresnay is best remembered for his role as Marius in Marcel Pagnol's Marseille Trilogy (1931-1936), but he has also appeared in numerous French classics, including La Grande illusion (1937), L'Assassin habite au 21 (1942) and Le Corbeau (1943).  In 1947, he received the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for his remarkable portrayal of Saint Vincent de Paul in the Oscar winning Monsieur Vincent (1947).  In L'Homme aux clefs d'or, Fresnay turns in one of his more complex and ambiguous screen portrayals, adopting the Marseille accent of his most famous screen creation.

Taking the female lead is a young actress at the start of her extraordinary career, Annie Girardot.  Girardot had already revealed her talents in André Hunebelle's comedy Treize à table but it was the part at the cynical and manipulative she-devil Gisèle in L'Homme aux clefs d'or that established her as an actress and set her on the road to stardom.  Playing alongside Giradot is the handsome Gil Vidal, who had spent much of the last decade playing depraved thugs.  Here, as the easily led Rémy, Vidal has a chance to prove himself and he comes up with the goods in the kind of antipathetic role for which he was best-suited.  Lending admirable support to the principals are Jean Rigaux, Grégoire Aslan, Georges Géret and Léo Joannon himself.  In case you were wondering, the film derives its title from the golden keys embroidered onto the jacket lapels of the head concierge of a hotel - this denoted membership of the association 'les clefs d'or'.

Film Synopsis

Antoine Fournier is a teacher in a college, a kind man who spends his free timing raising funds for a good cause.  One day, Rémy Bellanger, one of his students, is caught by Fournier whilst stealing money in his office.  Fournier doesn't want a scandal and is ready to forget all about it.  But Rémy has a vicious mind and wants to take revenge on Fournier.  To that end, he asks his girlfriend, Gisèle Delmar, to state that he tried to rape her.  To save the college's reputation, Fournier has no choice but to resign.  Some years later, Fournier is "the man with the golden keys" at the reception desk of an upmarket hotel.   He is surprised when Rémy and Gisèle check into the hotel.  Both are wealthy and married - he to a woman who keeps a close eye on her money, she to an older man.  One thing hasn't changed, however - they are still lovers...