Grémillon belongs to the same generation of French film-makers as Duvivier or Renoir, all born in the late 1890s. One could add Becker, Carné and Clouzot, born in the late 1900s, to the list. Nowadays, Grémillon's legacy is somewhat overshadowed by that of his colleagues, even though it's revered by some movie-buffs like the late French director and ultimate cinéphile Bertrand Tavernier.

Grémillon's trademark style involves setting a melodrama in a very realistic background, depicting everyday's life in rather modest, and often coastal surroundings. There are a lot of exterior shots of natural and urban landscapes, in an almost documentary fashion, a focus on the material hardships of his heroes, whether in their professional or private lives. At their best, his works foretell the neorealist Italian movies of the 1940-50s.

"L'Etrange Monsieur Victor" is a melodrama with criminal and social undertones, set in Toulon, a military harbor city in the French Provence, A respectable-looking bourgeois, Victor Agardanne (Raimu) is in fact the head of a gang of jewel robbers. He murders one of his accomplices and lets an innocent, hard-working cobbler (Blanchar) get condemned and sent to jail in his place. The drama picks up once the wrongfully convicted cobbler escapes from jail and heads back home, with Mr. Victor torn between remorse and his continued need to hide his crimes from both justice and his virtuous wife (Renaud).

The story is rather implausible overall, a sort of "Crime and Punishment" where Raskolnikov would be innocent and Judge. Porfiry would be the actual murderer - interestingly, Blanchar had played. Raskolnikov three years before in a movie by Pierre Chenal.

The whole melodrama part, in particular, is very dated, with dialogues which do not particularly inspire, and a depiction of human relationships which is very theatrical. Neither does the "crime story" fully convince: the plot is quite predictable, and Victor's would-be moral dilemma is painted in too broad strokes to be believable, the man oscillating between Mediterranean geniality and hard-core ruthlessness.

There remains a cast which deliver excellent and sometimes highly enjoyable performances. Raimu is a delight to watch, and Renaud is very moving. The two however, make for a very ill--assorted couple, beyond the needs of the script: it feels sometimes that they are playing in two different movies. Blanchar is the weak link of the cast, with a grating fake Provençal accent and a stilted and exaggerated acting style straight out of the silent films area. Viviane Romance has a small part as his wife of loose morals, a role she will reprise in several other pictures.

To be watched for Raimu and the depiction of Toulon in the late 1930s, Grémillon-style. For a movie featuring the framing of an innocent man over a background of social strife, check Duvivier's masterpiece "Panique" (1946),which is hugely superior.

I saw it back in the 70's at a university film club, thought the acting was excellent, especially Madeleine Renaud and Pierre Blanchar, and then forgot about it for 40 years. Now YouTube has graciously let us see it again (along with scores of other French classics) and it is time for a reappraisal.

I found some awkward moments; Gremillon can't hold back the force of nature that is Raimu--he sputters and wind-mills his arms a few too many times for me. Raimu had carte blanche to do pretty much what he pleased, just as Gabin had, and it could hurt a film's impact. With that said, the other actors do a fine job. Andrex and Georges Flamant as the thieves have the right menace, Viviane Romance is wonderfully sensual (just watch her in the shoe store scene) and Blanchar's unjustly convicted man is a textbook acting job. Gremillon went on to do finer work such as Lumiere d'ete and Remorques.

Anyone who loves French cinema is likely to salivate just reading the Opening Credits of this entry. Despite propaganda to the contrary films begin with SCREENPLAYS - show me the 'auteur' who can shoot a ream of Blank paper and I'll show you someone who doesn't exist - and here we have not only Charles Spaak, one of the four (together with Jean Aurenche, Henri Jeanson and Jacques Prevert) Outstanding writers of the early Sound-to-post-War French cinema but also Albert Valentin whose work on Boudu Saved From Drowning was uncredited but went on to write 'La ciel est a vous' (also with Spaak),'La vie de plaisir' and 'Le Mouton a cinq pattes' and directed three of the finest films in French cinema, 'L'Entraineuse', 'Marie-Martine' and 'La Vie de plaisir'. Behind the camera was Jean Gremillon, often consigned to footnote status in the reference books but a very fine director indeed who had already released 'Dainah Le Metisse' and 'Guele d'amour' and would go on to shoot 'Remorques', 'Lumiere d'ete' and 'Le Ciel est a vous' among others. Towering above the cast was Raimu; outside France it was Jean Gabin who received all the attention and this was not undeserved as he was an exceptional actor but WITHIN France Raimu was the 'man'. An accomplished stage actor he had already made a handful of silent films when he replicated his stage performance in Marius, the first episode of the great Marcel Pagnol trilogy and from then on his career as a star of the screen was assured. Closely associated with Pagnol he worked also with many of the top French directors running the gamut from tragedy to comedy. Playing his wife here was Madeleine Renaud, also an accomplished stage actress who would become Gremillon's favorite actress and appear in three more of his finest films, Remorques, Lumiere d'ete and Le Ciel est a vous.

If the opening credits activated the taste-buds the film itself delivers a banquet with Raimu as the essentially mild businessman who allows himself to become tainted by organized crime but attempts to extricate himself when his much younger wife (Renaud) presents him with a son. Inadvertently he kills the mobster who is leaning on him but a totally innocent man, Bastien (Pierre Blancher) is found guilty and draws ten years in the slammer. The film then becomes an early psychological study of a good man dealing with guilt and growing apart from family and friends. In a wonderful twist Blancher escapes after serving just over half of his sentence and Raimu takes him in thus forming an unwitting menage a trois (Blancher's own wife, Viviane Romance, had quickly divorced him following his incarceration, leaving him free to fall for Renaud). In 1938 this was a very sophisticated screenplay which is acted to the hilt and remains one of the most satisfying accomplishments of thirties French cinema. Once again my thanks to the Norwegian guy without whom ...