Julien Duvivier, Harry Baur, Robert Le Vigan; three names who, each in a different way, define French Cinema as succinctly as Fred Astaire defines Style and Cole Porter defines Sophistication. In terms of Sound this was early work from all three but Director Duvivier had already given us his first (Silent) version of Poil de carrotte and shown what he could do with Sound in Au Bonheur des dames so it's no surprise to see his fine directorial skills on display. Almost thirty years later the pseuds at Cahiers du Cinema became orgasmic because the semi-amateur Jean-Luc Godard had actually taken a camera out of the studio and onto the street; incroyable; Duvivier, who left more high quality celluloid in trims on the Cutting-Room floor than Godard ever put on the screen, was doing it in 1931, shooting the bulk of this entry on location in Morocco and whilst it's not in the same league as his Pepe Le Moko which utilized the same setting it's light years away from chopped liver. The basic premise isn't exactly new - five guys on vacation, one attempts to remove the veil from the lower face of a native woman and all five are cursed and sentenced to die before the next full moon - but as ever it's what the filmmaker does with hackneyed plots that matters and what Duvivier does is fine.
Review of Moon Over Morocco
