This film really is a fine example of good creative screen writing. Considering how marvelous most of Henri-Georges Clouzot's other film's have been (such as LES DIABOLIQUES and THE WAGES OF FEAR),this film didn't come as a complete surprise to me. I expected high quality and I sure got it.

The beauty of Clouzot's script is the originality. The idea of an evil person who sends hundreds of "poison pen" letters anonymously in a small town is very intriguing--especially when it eventually results in false accusations, fights and even death. Throughout, the film does a wonderful job of exploring the darkest aspects of human nature. In other words, while the letters are vile, they only have the power that the mindless masses give them. Additionally, throughout the film, again and again, I found myself thinking I had figured out WHO was sending these letters. While the actual villain wasn't super-hard to figure out, I was guessing and changing my mind about who it was up until the very end. Great job.

PS--a minor character in the film, Roger Blin as François was an uncanny double for Paul Muni--he almost looked like a long-lost twin!

PPS--If you like this film, try the American film PARTY WIRE. While not as subtle or well written, it's a dandy film about gossip.

In a small French town, someone is writing letters, filled with accusations and tenuous charges against others. It is so harmful and so pervasive that many of the townspeople's secrets come to the fore. It isn't long until a pall of persecution invades the town. These letters are signed "The Raven," but there are so many possible hands in this, it becomes an amorphous threat to anyone. Marriages are destroyed, people are thrown out of the church, jobs are lost. Mob rules. So the simplest way to look at this is a whodunnit mystery, but the greater theme comes when we realize that this was produced in 1943 and is French. The movie starts out almost comically and then the emotional juggernaut makes it's way through the little society where people are perfectly capable of committing murder. Quite a startling film.

Although I pride myself on my knowledge of fine films, I must admit with a trace of embarrassment that I had never heard of this film before yesterday, when a brief blurb on the Turner Classic Movies schedule prompted me to watch it. My principal motivation for watching it was that it was directed by Clouzot, whose "Diabolique" and "Wages of Fear" are favorites of mine. What a find! While not quite the equal of "Diabolique," it comes very close, and it is the equal of anything by Hitchcock. Viewed simply as a thriller, it is marvelous, but it is much more than that. It is a profound character study and a howl of rage at the small-mindedness and pettiness of small town bourgeois communities. Considering that it was made during the German occupation, it can also be viewed as about as scathing a critique of Gestapo methods as a director could be expected to make without risking his life.

After I saw "The Sorrow and The Pity" in 1971, I held the belief that any French artist who continued to work during the occupation was a legitimate target for criticism. Since then I have moderated this view somewhat. After all, who among us can honestly say what we would do in a similar situation? While there is no excuse for collaboration, can an artist be criticized for staying in his country and making a protest in the only way he can? I think that is what Clouzot did here, and the result is a masterwork. I only wish this were more widely known and publicized. 10/10