Dernier atout (1942)
Directed by Jacques Becker

Film Review

The first full-length film that director Jacques Becker was able to complete (having walked away from his first feature L'Or de Cristobal (1940) mid-way through production) is this affectionate but pretty formulaic pastiche of American film noir.  A caption at the start of the film explains that the action is set in a fictitious country (which, going by the police uniforms, seems to be somewhere in South America) but from the sharp suits, American-style police academy and stylishly chiaroscuro lighting, Dernier atout would have no difficulty passing for an American B-movie crime thriller if dubbed into English.  If it's true that imitation is the truest form of flattery, Becker began his illustrious career as an incorrigibly prostrated Hollywood-amoured sycophant.

Of course, as it turned out, all this was a good training exercise for the film that would earn Becker his place in French cinema history a decade later, namely Touchez pas au grisbi (1953), the film that heralded the start of France's impressive run of modern, realist policiers.  Between these two films, Becker's output was diverse and uneven, ranging from social realist fare - Antoine et Antoinette (1947) - to lyrical period melodrama - Casque d'or (1952).  Dernier atout appears slight compared with the director's subsequent masterpieces and is now all but overlooked, not without reason.  Whilst this first Becker offering is a competently mounted production, technically on a par with B-movie thrillers being churned out on the other side of the Atlantic, its 'second hand' tag is all too visible.  Not having yet found his own voice, Becker was content merely to imitate the work of others, and of course a copy is never as good as the original.

Which is not to say that Dernier atout is a bad film.  Boasting a superb cast headed by Raymond Rouleau and Mireille Balin (the definitive French femme fatale) and with one of France's best cinematographers, Nicolas Hayer, doing his utmost to perfectly replicate the ambiance of those early American films noirs, the film is both stylish and entertaining.  Pierre Renoir does what he does best, exuding quiet menace as the main villain of the piece, and Noël Roquevert has a welcome presence as a police inspector struggling to hold onto his dignity when caught between a hoard of cocky subalterns and a hen-pecking superior.   The only area where imagination seems to be lacking is in the screenwriting, which piles cliché upon cliché into an over-convoluted and rambling plot.  By the time the film has reached its nail-biting climax it has all but run out of steam, but some impressive camerawork and the odd shot of humour somehow prevents the mechanical plot from stalling.  As far as filmmaking debuts go, it's not a bad first bash, although Becker the auteur would only emerge in his next film, Goupi mains rouges (1943), a far more idiosyncratic and rewarding crime drama.

Film Synopsis

In Calcaras, the capital of a South American country, two young police cadets, Clarence and Montès, are competing against one another for a coveted promotion.  Whilst they are very different in temperament, they are equally qualified for the job, so to choose between them their superior Thomas assigns them both to a tricky murder investigation.  The crime took place at the Babylonia hotel and the suspected killer, a woman named Pearl, has been taken into police custody, although she refuses to speak.  Once the victim has been identified as the notorious gangster Toni Amanito, Clarence's investigation leads him to a rival hoodlum, Rudy Score.  Convinced that the latter is implicated in the killing, the enterprising cop inveigles his way into his gang and offers to prove his trustworthiness by assisting in the recovery of a large haul of stolen banknotes.  The operation goes awry and it is left to Montès, tackling his investigation from another angle, to come to the aid of his colleague...