L'assaut (1936) ⭐ 5.8 | Drama

Pierre-Jean Ducis' s only ambition was to entertain his audience ,art was his slightest concern ;his movies were often vehicles for Noel-Noel and bel canto singer Tino Rossi.

His genre was,by and large,comedy ;"l'assaut "is a different matter because it deals with political skulduggery ;there's a small mistake in Mr Bellinger' s precis :Mister Mérital 's opponent is not Mister Fripeau ,but another parliament deputy,Mister Lebel ,who wants to ruin his colleague's political career by revealing he committed a theft in his youth ; That Fripeau (Alerme) is a newspaper editor , who pretends to help Mérital ,but is actually a shady person who's hand in glove with his rival.

There's also a love story : Renée , a young woman has only eyes for forty-something Mérital (Charles Vanel),and wants to be his wife abetted by his own daughter (a young Madeleine Robinson).But would she marry a dishonest person?

The most interesting scenes are the common people 's reactions :at the time ,they only had the ''extra !extra! read all about it" paper boys and the radio to get the news .

The names are revealing : the good guy is called " Mérital " (from the French word "mérite" ;in English it sounds even better: "merit all");and the villain is called Fripeau (which recalls "fripon" or "fripouille" :knave ,scoundrel).

It's based on a play and it shows :directing is terribly static, it's talky and never really exciting , only interesting because of the actors .

• ulicknormanowen
• Apr 21, 2020
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