Les Dents de fer (1913)
Directed by Léonce Perret

Film Review

Les Dents de fer could have been, had its director Léonce Perret wanted it, an utterly grim film.  If it were to be remade today there's no doubt that whoever directed it would dwell on the more sensational and macabre aspects of the plot, sparing us none of the gruesome details.  Perret had more respect for his audience than this and instead of thrusting the horrid spectacle of self-mutilation into our faces he leaves it to us to join up the dots.  It is not horror that Perret wants us to feel, but sympathy for a noble individual who makes a terrible sacrifice out of a sense of duty to his fellow man.  After the good Dr Prain has freed himself from the infernal mantrap, he scarcely draws attention to the fact that he has all but lost the use of his right hand.  Only in the very final shot, when the little girl whose life he saved takes his mutilated extremity and kisses it, do we realise the extent of his sacrifice and see how noble an act it was.

If Léonce Perret's close colleague at Gaumont, Louis Feuillade, had been in the director's chair, Les Dents de fer would most probably have ended up as a full-blown melodrama and suspense thriller.  Perret was certainly aware of the popular appeal of such sensationalist fare and this makes it all the more surprising that he should deliver a far more subtle kind of film - a morality tale that appeals to our better rather than our baser instincts.  Perret's restraint as a storyteller is matched by the ingenuity of his mise-en-scène, which puts him on virtually the same level as D. W. Griffith.

It's worth noting Perret's use of deep focus photography to extend the depth of field, so that any activity in the background is as prominent as that taking place in the foreground.  One prime example of this is the scenes in which the anxious parents telephone a surgeon and anxiously await his arrival.  In the background, we can easily see the servants rushing about attending to the stricken child.  There is a sense of urgency, but also we feel the helplessness of the parents as they sit and wait for the one man who can save their daughter.  Les Dents de fer is a comparatively minor work in Léonce Perret's oeuvre but it reveals a filmmaker who possessed not only great skill but also something far rarer: discretion.

Film Synopsis

One evening, Dr Brosny and his wife are hosting a lively dinner party at their château in the country when their little girl, Germaine, is suddenly taken ill.  Fearful that his daughter's life is in peril, Dr Brosny immediately summons a specialist surgeon, Dr Prain, to his home and anxiously awaits his arrival.  On the way, Dr Prain's car breaks down and he decides to complete his journey on foot.  Before he can reach the Brosny's château, Dr Prain stumbles and gets his fingers caught in a mantrap.  There is only one course open to him...