An alcoholic doctor accidentally kills someone and manages to make the death look like an accident. The episode triggers a sense of confidence and he resolves to correct the miseries of his life.
Acting
Michel Simon's weathered face does more acting than most scripts.
Direction
Decoin lets silence and shame breathe in every frame.
Director
Henri Decoin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Post-war France loved morally compromised protagonists; this fits between poetic realism and the coming New Wave.
Michel Simon was notoriously difficult on set—Decoin reportedly shot around his moods, which accidentally enhanced Michel's exhausted desperation.
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