Le Messager (1937)
Directed by Raymond Rouleau

Film Review

Buried amidst a rich cornucopia of 1930s French film classics that includes La Grande illusion (1937), Pépé le Moko (1937) and La Bête humaine (1938), Le Messager has long remained an all-but-forgotten minor entry in the dazzling filmography of France's most iconic actor, Jean Gabin.  A conventional melodrama based on a totally predictable stage play by Henri Bernstein, the film has not withstood the test of time as well as the masterpieces around it to which Gabin leant his services, but that does not mean that it is not without interest.   Raymond Rouleau may never have attained the directorial brilliance of Jean Renoir, Marcel Carné or Julien Duvivier, but he was more than capable of turning out a decent crowd-pleaser, and it is no small feat that he was able to make something of Bernstein's hopelessly banal play.

Le Messager's main asset is of course Gabin himself, once again cast as the tragic romantic hero, one who is somewhat less sympathetic, a little more rugged than audiences had come to expect at this time (the character that Gabin plays presages his later, more grimly introspective roles).  At the height of his pre-WWII popularity, Gabin turns in another captivating and nuanced performance, outshining both of his capable co-stars - Gaby Morlay (the undisputed queen of French melodrama in the 30s and 40s) and Jean-Pierre Aumont (possibly the most good-looking French actor of his generation).  Gabin and Aumont make a fascinating contrast, two actors used to playing doomed romantic leads but with very different personalities, the one earthy and demotic, the other sensitive and idealistic.  There is a curious echo of Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962) in this film, not least because it offers a similar take on the classic love triangle, with two friends becoming fatally attracted to the same enigmatic woman.

Henri Bernstein's play had only just been written before its film adaptation went into production and Marcel Achard, one of France's leading playwrights, does a fine job of transposing it to the big screen, adding depth to the characters and making good use of the colonial setting to give the film a modern, exotic feel.  Raymond Rouleau had directed just three films prior to this (he was far better known, and far more capable, as an actor) but his mise-en-scène exhibits sufficient flair to disguise the film's theatrical origins.  Jules Kruger's brooding cinematography, helped by an ominous score from Georges Auric, heightens the intensity of the performances and introduces a hint of film noir foreboding into the proceedings.   An unpretentious low-key drama, Le Messager was never going to shine as brightly as those other great films that Jean Gabin inhabited with such panache in the late 1930s, but that doesn't mean it should be forgotten.  A film that pairs Gabin with Jean-Pierre Aumont and eerily anticipates later films by Truffaut and Kurosawa is a serendipitous find for anyone who should chance to come across it.

Film Synopsis

It is in a blaze of impetuosity that Nick Dange divorces his rich English wife Florence so that he can marry another woman, Marie.  Florence is not slow to take her revenge and to escape financial ruin Nick has no choice but to accept a post overseeing a mining operation in colonial Africa.  The work proves to be monotonous and Nick whiles away the lonely evenings by drinking heavily and sharing his confidences with his young second-in-command, Gilbert Rollin.  The image of his wife that Nick conjures up is one that fascinates his new friend, and when he returns to France to convalesce after an illness Gilbert wastes no time in looking Marie up.  Marie is at first shocked by Gilbert's protestations of love for her but her own loneliness and attraction for the younger man lead her to begin an intense love affair with him.  When Dange returns to Paris, he soon discovers his wife's infidelity and he is tempted to murder both Marie and the man he thought was his friend...