User Reviews

If your interest in French Cinema is peripheral you'll probably recognize the names of Jean Renoir, Jean Cocteau, Rene Clair and then begin to flounder, if you take a closer interest you'll also be aware of Abel Gance, Marcel Pagnol, Marcel Carne and, at a stretch, Jacques Feyder and Julien Duvivier but if you're a real buff you'll be right at home with names such as Pierre Chenal, Claude Autant-Lara, Christian Jacque and Henri Decoin. These men were the backbone of French Cinema in the first three decades of Sound film and any History of the subject that did not include at least a couple of titles from each name would be laughable. Decoin made Razzia sur le chnouf in between the eighth and ninth film he made with Danielle Darrieux and fittingly he made it with her male counterpart Jean Gabin - both began their careers in the early thirties and both became icons of French Cinema. After a brief hiatus following his self-imposed exile in Hollywood during the first years of the war Gabin had forfeited his status as Number One Male Box Office attraction and during the immediate post-war years his career faltered only to be revived spectacularly with Touchez pas au grisbi which allowed him to reinvent himself and move fluidly between gangster and cop in a series of policiers. Here he is reunited with Lino Ventura (who had made his acting debut in Touchez pas au grisbi) in a gritty (for the time) examination of the Parisian drug scene in the early fifties, complete with jazz score a la Bob, Le Flambeur. There's a nice touch that buffs will savor as Gabin drives past a sign noting the city limits of Le Havre; he had, of course, been there once before albeit as a passenger in a lorry in the classic Quai des Brumes. This is well up to chnouf (sorry about that) and highly enjoyable.

Henri Decoin's "Razzia sur la Chnouf", translated as "raid on the drugs" or more simply known as "Razzia" has one merit: it's certainly the first French movie to show all the inner workings of drug traffic like a "French Connection" of its time: getting the stuff, cutting it, supplying, delivering etc. For that, the film succeeds in its immersion into a world that was still fresh in a genre more concerned in heists and bank robberies. The problem with "Razzia" isn't muchion its theme than its treatment: the film depends on a plot twist that weakens its effect more than transcend it.

Jean Gabin plays Henri Ferré aka the Nantais, a man preceded by his reputation as a powerful drug operator who's just come back from America after a successful mission. His arrival in Paris doesn't go unnoticed by the Police so we have an idea on his pedigree. He meets his correspondent Paul Liski (Marcel Dalio) in a comfy Parisian hotel where he's entrusted with the mission of supervising the operations in Paris: from the fabrication to the distribution and dealing with the little shortcomings that affect the chain of supply that decrease the profitability. Two subordinates assist him in his work, among them Roger le Catalan, played by Lino Ventura, still a newcomer in 1955 but quite a forceful presence.

In its penchant for filmic exactitude, the adaptation of Auguste Le Breton's novel doesn't sugarcoat the effects of drugs and we have a few glimpses on the ravages it causes, including a rather disturbing visit in a local jazz-club. But the most spectacular effect can be contained within the performance of Lila Kedrova as a heroin-addict, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the first portrayal of addiction in French cinema. She brings a dimension of pathos rather unexpected in the kind of movies where women are reduced to either treacherous molls or disillusioned experienced insiders. And watching the character of Lea, it's even harder to accept Gabin as a man linked to drugs, his aura is more of a Vito Corleone-like figure who wouldn't want to get mixed in such a dirty business.

But there's something about Gabin that would make us accept even the worst endeavor given that he shoots someone who's had it coming or with the right amount of buffers between his personal ruling and the dirtiest side of his business. In "Razzia", he doesn't kill for a good portion of the story and if the drug business is covered with a documentary-like realism, Henri is shown more as a pragmatic boss than a psychopath with brutish impulses. While Roger doesn't hesitate to brutalize the wife of the chemist in charge of cutting the heroin, Henri's manners are worthy of a not-so-bad antihero as the film contains a sweet and tender subplot with Magali Noël as Lilia, the counter-girl in The Troquet, the restaurant used as a cover for all the operations.

The problem with "Razzia" is that it makes such an effort to make Gabin look as a gangster with a noble heart so when the big reveal comes, he comes the closest to a treacherous figure, what could have worked in "White Heat" because the lead was the bad guy doesn't quite work here. The film is almost victim of Gabin's performance and magnetism, begging us to appreciate him as a leader with flaws only to show him as a clean-cut cop. Of course, he's the hero and main protagonist but the problems of film-noir is that it invites us to embrace the world of criminals and so the twist at the end left me with puzzlement.

The film is still a solid noir with a few exquisite scenes and bits of dialogues in pure French slang delight but maybe Gabin is such a straight and no-nonsense figure that it's better to lay the cards first to let us know if we have gangster Gabin or cop Gabin, of course Gabin's performance was consistent with his status as a cop but the audience was left outside and speaking for myself, I felt a little cheated.

Surely the personality of Jean Gabin constituted the masculine and handsome daredevil model in his roles at 30 years of age; At almost 60, the plot here makes a fanciful revitalization of an outdated sex appeal or, at least, too advanced in years to throw a chair at the police and face them with a clenched fist like a boxer; In any case, this is a candid vision of the "villain do-gooder" embodied in Henri El Nantés, a Breton who replaces El Bosco and who has been entrusted by Lisky to straighten out drug trafficking but instead of being harsh and ruthless, he forgives those who steal from him and he messes with an employee with a dream personification of a false hero that contrasts with the seriousness of the story and the crimes involved; he gets rid of small thieves like Mimile very reluctantly with the help of Roger El catalán and his buddy and to make sure of the drug sales network he accompanies the distributor Lea. The depressing scenes of drug excess at the Nanard bar in Montmartre kill one off. The story does not give traces to suppose that Henri El Nantés is actually the inspector Henri Ferré but it is funny that until the shooting at the end the knot of the plot falls when the vermin of Roger El Catalan, Lino Ventura and his friend, die.

"Razzia Sur La Chnouf" purports to be a documentary-like exposé of the drug trade in 1950's France. However, given that nobody involved in making the film has actually been - I assume - part of a drug ring in their lives, what it ends up being is a regurgitation of standard movie tropes and clichés about such organizations. Furthermore, the big "plot twist" at the end of the movie is blatantly obvious from the first few frames. Gabin's "romance" with a girl more than half his age is unbelievable, to put it kindly. The most notable feature of the film is a young Lino Ventura, impressive as a killer-for-hire; his death scene recalls to mind "Scarface"! **1/2 out of 4.

Talking to a DVD seller about the splendid 1939 French Film Noir Le Jour se Leve,I found out that they had recently tracked down a French Noir with Le Jour star Jean Gabin,which led to me getting ready to once again step into Gabin's Film Noir world.

View on the film:

Lurking in the rotten drug dens,co-writer/(along with Maurice Griffe & Auguste Le Breton)director Henri Decoin & cinematographer Pierre Montazel give the title a rustic,on the spot reporting,documentary earthiness,as black tar and bags of dope are passed across the screen from dealer to user.

Casting the movie in an unrelenting fog, Decoin & Montazel make Ferré's return to France a walk into a Film Noir hellhole,by painting Ferré's business investigating in long,lingering shadows,which tighten up as Ferré goes deeper into the underworld.Allowing Ferré to get "hands on" in getting the business back on track, Decoin dips the murky Film Noir into being superbly stylized ,via lighting Ferré's punch-ups in elegant silhouette,which unveil the bruises that the cops and the gangs get from the grime covered underworld.

Sending Ferré in as a master of the trade,the screenplay by Decoin/Griffe and Auguste Le Breton, (whose novel the film is based on) holds back from filling the bags with exposition,to fire raw,to the point dialogue across the screen,as slang from all sides is shot onto the screen,with the viewer being wonderfully placed to pick up on the slang and dealings on "da street" by themselves.Following every obstacle that Ferré has to break in order to get "the business" on track.

The writers brilliantly balance Ferré's shots of ruthlessness with an abrasive moral code,which whips across the Film Noir shade with an excellent prospected-changing twist ending, which completely changes the perspective that Ferré's morals are seen from.Backed by a shimmering score from Marc Lanjean, Jean Gabin gives a fabulous performance as Ferré.Playing everything close to his chest, Gabin displays a dazzling precision in releasing an unflinching stern,no nonsense belief across Ferré's face,as Ferré sets his sights in getting the Film Noir business back on track.

As gripping as a Melville movie - until half-way through when we're shown a rapid sequence involving drug-pushers and -users, portrayed in the worst possible stereotypes as black, lesbian or gay. This underworld sequence ends in a marijuana den with an implied orgy involving Kedrova and the punters (all black). Yes, we are warned at the start of the dangers posed by drug-taking, but the sub-text arising from this scene suggests the worst excesses of Nazi film propaganda. Despite a fantastic cast (Gabin, Ventura, Kedrova) and slick direction/camera work, the final twist is unbelievable and the final images of butch women, simpering gay men and a black male user having a fit leave a foul after-image. Many will disagree with me, but in all conscience I cannot give more than one star to this ideological nightmare.