There's always a price tag.
This is the title of Hadley Chase's novel which was transferred to the screen by Denys de la Patellière who made turkeys by the dozen.Nevertheless,"retour de manivelle" (=it'll backfire on them)might probably be his finest hour,relatively speaking.This movie is suspenseful,absorbing and it never loses steam.First the screenplay:it's a model of film noir:the suicide clause was canceled from Morgan's hubby's insurance contract.And he does commit suicide.
Before dying,he tells her the only way to get the dough is to use the well known suicide made to look like a crime.But you know ,they were not really in love and she had become the chauffeur's lover.The lovebirds will run into difficulties when they apply the husband's suggested ominous plan.Then ,the cast:Michele Morgan is wonderful as a gorgeous not-so-merry widow ;"I've always been bought" she keeps on saying.She is more than fed up with men.
It's quite possible that sexual relations may become something loathsome to her.Daniel Gélin is as effective as a naive chauffeur .A superb supporting cast includes Peter Van Eyck as the "dear" departed ,Bernard Blier-strangely ,his name does not appear in the cast and credits,but at the end of the movie.I do not understand why.Maybe an user will explain it some day- as a smart ironical captain,and Michèle Mercier in her pre-Angelique days.Fine witty lines by Michel Audiard Recommended to films noirs buffs.
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Author: Spikeopath from United Kingdom24 March 2014Retour de manivelle (There's Always a Price Tag) is written and directed by Denys de La Patelliere. It stars Michele Morgan, Daniel Gelin, Michele Mercier, Bernard Blier, Peter van Eyck and Clara Gansard. Music is by Maurice Thiriet and cinematography by Pierre Montazel.Adapted from James Hadley Chase's novel, plot finds Robert Mabillon (Gelin) as a struggling artist who saves Eric Freminger (van Eyck) from a drunken suicide attempt, and promptly gets offered employment as a chauffeur by way of gratitude. Once back at the Freminger residence, Robert finds Eric is a severely depressed man with a host of problems.
And then Helene Freminger (Morgan) arrives on the scene, hostile, suspicious but ever so sultry, it's the kick-start of events that can only lead to misery – or worse – for all involved.As the first American film noir cycle was winding down, a band of French film makers were picking up the barely alight torch and pouring petroleum on it, carrying it with some distinction well into the 1960s. Denys de La Patelliere's Retour de manivelle is a superior piece of French noir, containing all the traits and peccadilloes of its American cousins.
Robert Mabillon instinctively commits a heroic act, his thanks for such a wonderful gesture? Is a kick in the face by fate, where he's thrust into a muddy film noir infected world of deadly passions, suicide, criminal cover ups and a scam so daring it can only lead to more pain and life altering misery.Sizzle, sizzle, the bitch is here! As Eric Freminger's life collapses by the day, his alcoholism getting to its final death throe stages, Mabillon is ensnared in Helene's web. When she first slinks into view, brilliantly lighted by Montazel, you just know that Mabillon, and us the viewers, are in hook, line and sinker!
She's a grade "A" fatale of the femme variety, a bitch, as cunning as a cat, her beauty and sexuality weapons of mass male destruction. In one scene she sports a leopard skin coat, it's as appropriate as appropriate can be. In another she slowly and seductively walks up the stairs, her sly glances tempting the now hapless Mabillon to the point of no return. The addition of housemaid Jeanne (Mercier another Gallic beauty) half way through the piece, advances the story still further, adding more murky depth to the already simmering broth of doom.
So now we have a suicide and an accident!
As the plot thickens, as the tricksy scam at the pic's core unfurls and plunges all into the hornet's nest, Patelliere and Montazel prove skilled purveyors of the film noir style. The film is consistently shot with shadowy contrasts or isolated lighting techniques, while for the key speech scene given by Eric Freminger the room is bathed in classic Venetian blind slatted shadows, the position of such adroitly filmed by the makers.
This room, the study, is a big player in the film, for there's a very distinctive ticking clock lending its aural presence to the human interactions, from beginning to the coup de grace, it can be heard, the inference has to be that time is ticking away for the protagonists, the sound department turning the volume up to ensure it means something.A brilliant French noir that is in desperate need of more exposure, some crude back projection work stops it from being a 10/10 picture, but this is essential for the film noir noirista, both thematically and visually. For whom the ticking clock tolls, indeed. 9/10
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Robert (Daniel Gélin), an itinerant painter passing through Monte Carlo, saves the life of uber-rich drunk Eric Fréminger (Peter van Eyck) late one night and the man offers Robert a job as his companion-cum- chauffeur, much to the displeasure of his icy, elegant wife Hélène (Michèle Morgan). When Fréminger isn't playing sadistic mind games with Hélène, he's either blotto or busy going bankrupt and he tells Hélène she'll only have a couple of hours after he blows his brains out to make the dirty deed look like murder if she wants to collect on a sizable life insurance policy. Fréminger immediately makes good on his threat and after a quick tête-à-tête, Hélène and Robert agree to take the dead man's advice and hide his body in a walk-in freezer until they can come up with a plan. They begin by hiring a pretty young maid (Michèle Mercier) to convince her that the master of the house is a recluse who won't come out of his room but "oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive..."
A deliciously cold-blooded, sexy French noir based on a James Hadley Chase pulp thriller that took its lead from Cornell Woolrich's "The Black Path Of Fear". Woolrich's version first saw the light of day as THE CHASE in 1946 (also starring Michèle Morgan, interestingly enough) but, as usual with J.H. Chase, there's more than enough variational surprises to allow a "twisted sister" to stand on its own and THERE'S ALWAYS A PRICE TAG does just that. A thoroughly jaundiced eye is cast on human nature and Morgan (platinum blonde here a la DOUBLE INDEMNITY's Phyllis Dietrichson) chills to the marrow as the devastating, driven femme fatale. The estimable character actor Bernard Blier is also pitch-perfect as a police inspector who's a bit smarter than he lets on. Cynical and satisfying.
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Author: msroz from United States27 March 2015In "Retour de Manivelle" (1957), which, by the way has the apt title "Lucifer's Daughter" in the German release, film noir fans (and not) can expect a sumptuous visual treat from an expert. Cinematographer Pierre Montazel had both "Touchez Pas au Grisbi" (1954) and "Razzia" (1955) behind him when he filmed "Retour". I do not know the director's work, but Denys de la Patelliere proficiently adapts the story and delivers as cold-hearted and icy a noir as one is likely to encounter. The music lays out for some selected stretches, making us uncomfortable participants in the cynicism that dominates this story.The setting is rich, a richly-appointed mansion on the Riviera, a beautiful white convertible cadillac, a sports car and a limousine, servant's quarters, a spotless kitchen with a large cold-storage room, and beautiful occupants too.
But this deceives. Peter van Eyck has run through his money and he hates his wife, Michele Morgan, while she hates men in general, although willing to use them. Van Eyck has been so gutted that a revengeful suicide is his way out. A newly-hired chauffeur, Daniel Gelin, becomes Morgan's conquest and hapless tool to fool the insurance company into paying off on the policy. He in turn seduces a new maid, Michele Mercier, as part of a plot that he cannot fully discern, anymore than he can understand the other woman he is making love to, Morgan. Can they fool the shrewd police inspector, Bernard Blier? Chance and Fate have something to say about that.
