BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1955) - DVD Review(1)

 

Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

13 June 2004

Yesterday I have watched Jean-Pierre Melville's BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1955) for the first time, by way of Criterion's exemplary DVD edition. The film is a typical 50s French noir in its presentation of divided loyalties among a gang of crooks, women causing trouble, an elaborate heist-gone-wrong, police interrogation, etc. With this, Melville's first outing in a genre he later made his own, the director shows he is already at one with the milieu, capturing its every nuance and mannerism with almost effortless ease.

 

The cast is relatively low-key but all the main roles are admirably filled. Unfortunately, none went on to do much else of importance (apart from Howard Vernon) - and it was, in fact, lead actor Roger Duchesne's penultimate film. Looking a bit like Rudolf Klein-Rogge (who as Dr. Mabuse also played a gambling crime lord), he exudes a smooth charisma and is quite arresting in his playing. Isabel Corey, still a teenager but looking incredibly sexy and mature, was literally hand-picked by Melville himself for the role of Anne, the lovely waif whom Bob takes under his wing but whose inexperience eventually leads, in part, to his downfall.

*

The film also makes brief yet subtle use of nudity which, at that time, was not something one would hope to find in American movies! Daniel Cauchy as Paulo, Bob's right-hand man who also falls for Corey, acquits himself well too here and, on the DVD, delivers an intelligent and delightful 20-minute interview which gives some insight into Melville's working methods, the film's pain-staking shooting schedule (it took some two years to complete during which time Cauchy found time to appear in another four movies!) and also the director's insistence in portraying the 'correct' way of dying on screen. Howard Vernon has a brief but pivotal role as the shady Scotsman who offers to finance Bob's 'scheme'.