Eliane Monceau
2021
Nous sommes tous des assassins
André Cayatte
Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin
Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
We Are All Murderers
Identité judiciaire
Hervé Bromberger
Raymond Souplex, Jean Debucourt
Identite Judiciare stars Raymond Souplex as wily French police inspector Basquier. The villain is Berthet (Jean Debucourt), a high-ranking government official. Basquier suspects that Berthet is a vicious murderer, but is unable to prove anything thanks to bureaucratic interference. Thus, the good inspector plays a waiting game a la Columbo, hoping for that one fatal slip on the part of the killer. Certain portions of Identite Judiciare proved a bit too intense for American audiences, and were accordingly snipped by the censors.
Paris Vice Squad
