Les Mystères de Paris (1962)
Directed by André Hunebelle

Film Review

Eugène Sue's celebrated novel Les Mystères de Paris (first published in 1842) has been adapted many times for the cinema but the best known version is this colourful 1962 blockbuster, starring French film icon Jean Marais in yet another of his athletic historical roles.  Well-paced, stylish and beautifully photographed, the film was enthusiastically directed by André Hunebelle, who had previously worked with Marais on some very popular swashbucklers - Le Bossu (1960) and Le Capitan (1960).  With Jean Marais at the height of his popularity, the film proved to be a huge commercial success, attracting an audience in France of almost three million, making it one of the biggest hits of the year.

The film's distinguished cast includes Raymond Pellegrin as the deliciously evil villain of the piece (it is obligatory to boo and hiss every time he appears on the screen), the sensual Dany Robin as Marais's ill-fated fiancée and the eye-catching British actress Jill Haworth in one of her earliest screen roles.  Acting stalwarts Noël Roquevert and Pierre Mondy make welcome appearances, although it is often the lesser known character actors who most grab our attention, particularly Renée Gardès who is magnificently grotesque as the despicable hag Chouette. 

Whilst it is by no means the most inspired or intelligent literary adaptation French cinema has given us, Les Mystères de Paris is still a massively enjoyable adventure romp that offers both a bleak insight into the harsh inequalities that existed in post-revolutionary France under the reign of Louis-Philippe and some very well choreographed action sequences.  Marais seems to positively relish the dangerous situations his character manages to get himself out of, miraculously escaping from burning buildings and flooded cellars like a 19th Century Harry Houdini.  Hunebelle would bring together Marais and Pellegrin a few years later in his most famous film, Fantômas (1964), with Pellgrin providing the distinctive voice for Marais's masked arch-villain.

Film Synopsis

Paris, 1840.  The fortunes of the Marquis Rodolphe de Sombreuil, a frivolous dandy, and Marie Godin, one of the city's malnourished poor, become inextricably linked on the day that the former's horse-drawn carriage knocks down the latter's father.  The Marquis is not a heartless man, so thinking that the old man has sustained only a minor injury he gives him a purse containing some money to compensate for the accident.  He then goes on his way with his fiancée Irène, unaware that he leaves behind a man dying from his wounds.  Godin's death is more than his wife and daughter can bear, but far worse is to follow.

Finding the Marquis's expensive purse in the widow's possession, the police mistake the old woman for a thief and immediately arrest her.  Meanwhile, Marie gets herself into bad company whilst looking for work.  Summoned by the police to settle the matter of the stolen purse, Rodolphe is moved by the widow's urgent appeals to go after her missing daughter and rescue her from whatever trouble she is now in.  Adopting a suitable disguise, the Marquis is soon scouring the city for Marie and finds a useful ally in Chourineur, a former convict who knows his way around the Parisian underworld.

Meanwhile, the object of Rodolphe's ardent quest about Paris has fallen into the pock-marked hands of La Chouette, a vile old hag who intends employing her as a prostitute.  With her fiancé absorbed by his latest idiotic adventure, Irène begins to feel neglected and resentful.  Seeking amusement of her own, she turns her attention to the Marquis's rival, the Baron de Lansignac, a powerful man of business who has a habit of getting his own way.  When Marie is introduced to him, the baron decides at once that he must have her...