Virgile (1953)
Directed by Carlo Rim

Film Review

Carlo Rim's third feature is less impressive than his first two - L'Armoire volante (1948) and La Maison Bonnadieu (1951) - but it still offers plenty of enjoyment value, with Robert Lamoureux demonstrating his flair for comedy near the start of his prominent screen career.  Lamoureux's best scenes are with Yves Robert, an actor who would make his directing debut the following year and go on to helm some of France's most successful films, including La Guerre des boutons (1962) and Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972).  Here Robert plays a notorious psychopath whose futile attempts to intimidate and harm Lamoureux provide a rich vein of humour which Rim mines ruthlessly.   As soon as Lamoureux starts to believe he is invulnerable, thanks to a purloined charm artefact, the gags per minute ratio goes into overdrive.  With two such charismatic performers vying for our attention, the billed female lead Geneviève Kervine scarcely gets a look-in as Lamoureux's love interest, and in any event she is the least interesting of the female characters.  This enjoyably daft (but never silly) mix of farce and suspense-comedy ends with a nail-biting rooftop chase and a duel to the death between Lamoureux and Robert which looks as if it might have been directed by Hitchcock himself.

Film Synopsis

François Virgile is a likeable young man but his attempts to make something of his life are continually thwarted by a curse which, he believes, has brought misery and misfortune to generations of his family.  His luck seems to have changed when he finds work as a newspaper reporter, but it isn't long before another disaster strikes.  His friends agree that his apparent run of bad luck is down to a lack of self-confidence, and so they contrive to improve Virgile's lot by getting him to believe in himself more.  The plan is derailed when an escaped psychotic killer shows up unexpectedly in Virgile's lodgings...