Le dernier sou (1946) Online

Those who are interested in such things have tended to divide Andre Cayatte's career into two halves; the first period, what might be termed entertainments, and the second/later period, what might be termed the social conscious phase. Those same people have tended to date the division somewhat later than his stint at Continental but after watching Le Dernier Sou I would argue that he was already rehearsing for his second phase as early as this. The film is about scams and the suffering they cause and culminates in a trial which, in my opinion nudges 'entertainment' - and we should not lose sight of the Continental manifesto which was, essentially, to provide escapist fodder for the masses which theoretically would make them forget they were living in a country Occupied by the enemy - into the realm of social conscious. It's good to see Noel Roquevert, a solid 'supporting' actor, given a leading role and it's even better to see how well he handles it; Ginette Leclerc is equally excellent and delivers a performance to match the one she gave in Le Corbeau. I've now posted comments on 28 of the 31 films produced by Continental between 1941 and 1943 and would dearly love to track down the remaining three, Marriage d'Amour, Ne Bouget plus and perhaps most elusive of all, Vingt-Cinq ans de bonheur. If anyone reading this has any information on these - better yet knows where I can get my hands on them - a PM to that effect would be much appreciated.

Writer Reign shows one more time his insightful knowledge of the old French cinema when he hints at Ginette Leclerc and "Le Corbeau".In fact,both these works were very risqué,osé,taking cynicism to new limits.Noel Roquevert ,cast against type,portrays a wicked unscrupulous swindler,far from his usual good-natured characters .Matching him every step of the way is Leclerc's bitch-with-a-sentimental-side :take the scene where she tells Charpin (and later another dupe) that his father is terminally ill;she is so convincing we almost believe her.On the other hand,Stefani is one of the most frightening villains of the French cinema;he is all the more disturbing as his face is very familiar (and rather nice ) to the French audience.His organization is a Mafia in miniature:all his collaborators are actually his victims for "he knows so many bad things about them he could send them all to jail whenever he wants to(and he does actually ;he pretends to help the unfortunate Baron and he hands him over to justice,so to speak.

The ending is one of the most inventive of the cinema of the era and is still impressive today.It compares favorably to Kazan's "a face in the crowd" .All these radios which were part of the swindles backfire against the Master.

It belongs to the first era of Cayatte's career but it is really unique for it does not look like -with the eventual exception of his remarkable sketch in "Retour A la Vie"- the other ones,which are literary adaptations.

"Le dernier sou" was completed in 1943 but not shown until 1946. Continental Films, who produced it, although French by name was in fact in all intends and purposes a German production firm. When Paris was liberated in 1944, all productions from Continental Films were confiscated, and "Le dernier sou", was shelved for several years. It was eventually released on January 23 1946 but was only ran for a week. It was not until 1982 that the Cinémathèque du Palais de Chaillot in Paris showed this gem of a film. Those lucky enough to have seen it discovered it was a very good film (scripted by Louis Chavance who also wrote 'Corbeau, Le (1943)') remarkably served by very talented actors.