Pièges (1939)
Directed by Robert Siodmak

Film Review

Pièges is an excellent example of European film noir from the German-born director Robert Siodmak, made during his period of exile in France before the war.  The influence of director Fritz Lang can be seen through the film, which shows some strong similarities with Lang's masterpiece M.

The film is a curious blend of light contemporary French romantic comedy and very dark crime thriller.  The last segment of the film is as tense and as moody as any classic film noir, but makes a bizarre contrast with the first half of the film, in which the popular performer Maurice Chevalier is happily singing chansons d'amour.

Siodmak's direction is accomplished, but far from perfect, although the atmospheric cinematography makes this a compelling and suspense-laden work.  The acting is also of a high calibre, with particularly strong performances from Pierre Renoir and Maurice Chevalier.  Erich von Stroheim is delightful in his bizarre cameo part whilst Marie Déa is impressive as the no-nonsense and gutsy Adrienne, a refreshing contrast to the feeble, two-dimensional screen heroines of the time.  In many ways, Pièges is the template for the crime thriller which would become one of the most popular genres in French cinema in subsequent decades.

Film Synopsis

The mysterious disappearance of eleven young women in Paris has so far stumped the capital's police.  It is a sign of how desperate things are becoming that Superintendent Ténier has to resort to enlisting the help of Adrienne Charpentier, a close friend of the latest victim.  The only common factor in each of the disappearances is that immediately prior to their going missing each victim responded to a small ad in the newspapers.  Adrienne duly follows their example and starts sending off replies to various ads she finds in the papers.  The first man she meets is a most peculiar individual, a failed couturier who has just destroyed his work and threatens to drag Adrienne into a suicide pact.  This is clearly not the man the police are after.

Not long afterwards, Adrienne gets to meet Robert Fleury, a debonair cabaret artiste, and his business associate, Brémontier.  Adrienne finds it difficult to resist the smooth charms of the instantly likeable Fleury.  Hired as a chambermaid at a large private residence, Adrienne finds herself threatened by a butler who turns out to be implicated in a white slave operation.  With Fleury's assistance, the police are able to round up the culprits and that seems to be the end of the affair - until it is discovered that not all of the missing women are accounted for.

Adrienne's suspicions immediately turn towards Fleury when she notices a portrait of her missing friend in his home.  A series of anonymous letters typed on Fleury's own typewriter seem to confirm his guilt - but most damning of all is the sudden discovery of three dead bodies, all women, in his garden.  Ténier is the only man who still believes that Fleury is innocent, but does he have time to expose the real killer before the wrong man is sentenced and executed?  Aware that he is dealing with a very clever adversary, the superintendent knows he will have to lay a very ingenious trap...