Les Inconnus Dans La Maison
Sog.: dal romanzo omonimo di Georges Simenon; Scen., dial.: Henri-Georges Clouzot; F.: Jules Krüger; Mo.: Marguerite Beaugé; Scgf.: Guy de Gastyne; Su.: Jacques Carrère; Mu.: Roland-Manuel; Int.: Raimu (avvocato Hector Loursat de Saint- Marc), Juliette Faber (Nicole Loursat), Gabrielle Fontan (Fine), Héléna Manson (Madame Manu), Tania Fédor (Marthe Dossin), Lucien Coëdel (Jo), Marcel Mouloudji (Ephraïm Luska), Marguerite Ducouret (Angèle), Jean Tissier (Ducup), Jacques Baumer (avvocato Gérard Rogissart), Noël Roquevert (il commissario Binet), André Reybaz (Émile Manu), Raymond Cordy (l’usciere), Jacques Denoël (il figlio di Destrivaux), Pierre Ringel (il figlio di Daillat), Jacques Grétillat (il presidente), Marc Dolnitz (Edmond Dossin), Arthur Devère (medico legale), Daniel Gélin (un giornalista), Maryse Arley (poi Martine Carol); Prod.: Continental Films; Pri. pro.: 16 maggio 1942. 35mm. L.: 2720 m. D.: 99’. Bn.
Film Notes
Hector Loursat, an alcoholic who abandoned his career as a lawyer when his wife left him; he lives like a hermit with his daughter Nicole, who treats him with indifference, and their maid Fine. One evening he finds the dead body of a thug, Gros- Louis, in a furnished attic room. Nicole’s testimony reveals that she is the head of a group of young people who meet in a bar and in the attic of the lawyer’s home… The film criticizes the lax morals of French society of the Third Republic, a theme dear to the Vichy Regime, but Decoin removed the details that could have been exploited by collaborationists. Les inconnus dans la maison is representative of a filmmaker approach during the occupation which consisted in eliminating references to racial issues, even if present in the works films were based on, as was the case for the novel by Simenon that inspired this movie.