SATURDAY, NOV 17, 2018MARINA VLADY, TRÉS JOLIE

THE SHOW-OFF / LE CRÂNEUR  1:00

The youthful Vlady was a lovely, mysterious creature, as we've already seen in Les salauds vont en enfer/The Wicked Go To Hell (1956), and here she's a spectral presence in the life of a conniving petty thief (Raymond Pellegrin again) with perverse (and increasingly dangerous!) aspirations to move up into the big time. Can she make him see the error of his ways before it's too late and he's reduced to a bullet-strewn carcass?

It's a sharply-realized tale of provincial thuggery from the fascinating Russian expatriate director Dimitri Kirsanoff, famous for the incendiary silent film Menilmontant (1926), who re-emerges from a long career twilight as that most valued commodity in these parts: a so-called "genre director" with a twist.

(1955, 90min) Directed by Dimitri Kirsanoff. Scenario by Jacques Companéez. Adaptation and dialogue by Jacques Companéez, Claude Desailly, and Louis Martin. Music by Marc Lanjean. With Marina Vlady, Raymond Pellegrin, Dora Doll, Paul Frankeur, Alain Nobis, Hélène Vallier, Georges Lannes.

DOUBLE AGENTS / LA NUIT DES ESPIONS  2:45

Marina Vlady married Robert Hossein in 1955. During their tempestuous marriage they made two sons and four films together, with this one being the last. Hossein once described it as a "monument to a magnificent ruin," a creative and romantic partnership that had burned too brightly.

Perhaps fittingly, the tale concerns two spies who meet and are violently attracted to each other—almost against their will—as part of a complex, virtually incomprehensible espionage exchange they make at a secluded cabin somewhere in France during the dead of night at a crucial moment in World War II. Designed as a set-piece for two, it's an allegory about love, trust and betrayal—and, perhaps, the mysteries of candlelight.

(1959, 80min) Directed by Robert Hossein. Screenplay by Robert Hossein, Louis Martin, and Alain Poiré from the novel Les bras de la nuit by Frédèric Dard. Photography by Jacques Robin. Music by André Hossein. With Marina Vlady, Robert Hossein, Michel Etcheverry, Robert Le Béal, Roger Crouzet, Clément Harari.

IN-BETWEEN MOVIE IN THE LITTLE ROXIE

THE BEAST AT BAY / LA BÊTE Á L'AFFÛT  4:15

Henri Vidal's last noir performance is an edgy one, aided amply by the alluring Françoise Arnoul and the old-pro director's skills of Pierre Chenal, who returned to France from a long exile to make his special version of French "B-noir."

Murder suspect Vidal is put under house arrest at the villa of wealthy widow Arnoul, who's far too young to give up on the physical pleasures of life. She dives into an affair with him under the noses of the police without stopping to ask the pertinent question: is Vidal actually a murderer? A chewy cat-and-mouse game ensues, leading to a fraught, atmospheric finale in an ancient lighthouse. Long live Chenal! Long live Vidal!

(1959, 83min)  Directed by Pierre Chenal. Screenplay by Pierre Chenal, Michel Audiard, André Tabet, and Rodolphe-Maurice Arlaud from the novel Moran's Woman by Day Keene. Photographed by Christian Matras. Music by Maurice Jarre. With Henri Vidal, Françoise Arnoul, Michel Piccoli, Gaby Sylvia, Jean Brochard, Lucien Barjon.