“Le criminel is one of those violent dramas that could only be set in Spain or Italy…the same day that Isabelle is supposed to marry don Joaquim, she disappears, whisked away by another … – this is how Raymond Villette began his review of the film in “Mon Ciné” (November 27, 1927), ending with a largely positive judgement – The direction by Mr. Ryder is excellent, the acting is at the level of the staging, allowing me to shower all the actors with the same praise”. Nicely avoided by the history of cinema, Alexandre Ryder (1891-1966), French director of Polish origins, showed unquestionable capabilities as a filmmaker. Over the span of his thirty year career he handled a wide variety of genres, from the dramatic Le criminel to the color film Le double (1921) on the theory of double personalities, to the idyllic Rose de Nice (1921), to two works of religious inspiration based on novels by Pierre l’Hermite, La femme aux yeux d’or and Comment j’ai tué mon enfant (both 1925), to the serious La grande épreuve (1927), an epic fresco of the first world war, filmed in cooperation with the Ministry of War. During the first years of sound film, his activities were almost entirely limited to transcription into images of upbeat boulevardières comedies such as L’âne de Buridan (1930), Faut réperer Sophie (1933) Le noveau testament (1936) with Sacha Guitry. In 1940 however, he was author of the unusual Après “Mein Kampf”, mes crimes which reconstructs the years of Hitler’s youth, the Nazi rise to power, the assassinations of Roehm, Schleicher and Chancellor Dollfuss, and the persecution of the Jews. The film came out in March of 1940, but was hidden when France was occupied. Later, with added scenes of the allied victory, it was once again shown in a free Paris.

Vittorio Martinelli