Sortilèges (1945)
Directed by Christian-Jaque

Crime / Drama

Film Synopsis

A horse dealer is making his way across the Cévennes mountains in a snowstorm when he is suddenly attacked by a stranger.  His assailant is Jean-Baptiste, a reclusive man known locally as the Bellman.  Having killed the horse dealer, Jean-Baptiste flees with his gold.  He intends to share these ill-gotten gains with Fabret, a simpleminded old man whose daughter he has taken a fancy to.  In fact, Fabret's daughter, Catherine, is in love with another man, a woodcutter named Peter.  When the horse merchant's corpse is discovered, the villagers suspect that he was killed by Fabret and organise a lynch mob.  Pierre comes to the aid of the old man, only to learn that Jean-Baptiste has fled with Catherine...
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Film Credits

  • Director: Christian-Jaque
  • Script: Claude Boncompain (novel), Christian-Jaque, Jacques Prévert
  • Cinematographer: Louis Page
  • Music: Henri Verdun
  • Cast: Lucien Coëdel (Jean-Baptiste), Fernand Ledoux (Fabret, le 'lièvre'), Renée Faure (Catherine Fabret), Madeleine Robinson (Marthe), Roger Pigaut (Pierre), Georges Tourreil (Le brigadier), Pierre Labry (L'idiot du village), Léonce Corne (Le cordonnier), Michel Piccoli (Un villageois), Sinoël (La grand-mère), Jacques Butin, Léon Larive, Marcel Pérès
  • Country: France
  • Language: French
  • Support: Black and White
  • Runtime: 100 min

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