Les Scélérats (1959)
Directed by Robert Hossein

Film Review

After a promising start to his career as a film director, Robert Hossein hastily came a cropper as soon as he started to imitate the French New Wave directors.  No film shows this inglorious attempt to clamber aboard the Nouvelle Vague bandwagon more clearly than Les Scélérats, a film that is almost completely crushed by its self-conscious pretensions.  The sad thing is that the film is based on a respectable novel by Frédéric Dard and Hossein had previously adapted a number of other works by Dard with some success -  Les Salauds vont en enfer (1956) and Toi, le venin (1958) are certainly well worth seeing.  By casting himself in the lead role as an American, Hossein does himself no favours and his creepily wooden presence makes the flaws in his over-laboured mise-en-scène all the more apparent.  Michèle Morgan's performance is not much better, although her strained histrionics are preferable to the totally stilted contributions from the other three principals, Olivier Hussenot, Jacqueline Morane and Perrette Pradier.  Jacques Robin's noir-like cinematography does at least bring a touch of poetry to the proceedings, but saddled with a weak script and surfeit of directorial narcissism (to say nothing of the muzak-like soundtrack, which soon becomes unbearable), Les Scélérats is a very difficult film to like.

Film Synopsis

Louise Martin lives with her parents and is engaged as a maid by Jess Rooland, a rich American who lives in a fancy apartment on the other side of the street.  He is a nostalgic and mysterious man who is married to Thelma, a depressive alcoholic.  Louise cannot understand why Thelma repeatedly calls her husband a murderer.  In truth, Thelma blames Jess for the death of their son, who was killed in a road accident a few years before.  Louise has much to discover about Jess, including her own feelings for him...