This film was a tiny bit predictable, otherwise it would have earned a 10. The story is about a decent but meek French man who writes cowboy stories (though he has never even been to the American West). He has no dream of having them published but feels a strong need to put his fantasies on paper. This is sort of a vicarious thrill for him because apart from his stories, his own life is rather dull and he is a failure with the ladies. Eventually, his sleazy boss who owns a magazine discovers his stories and agrees to publish them. Of course, being sleazy, there is a catch and the nice main character is, for a while, being used by this creep. However, where the story goes from there and how it goes there is intriguing and make this a must-see film.

Prevert wrote this screenplay for Renoir the same year he wrote Jenny for Marcel Carne and it's interesting to speculate what might have happened in French cinema had Prevert forged a partnership with Renoir instead of Carne. There's a lot here about workers 'rights' a subject that still, 70 years down the line, still preoccupies Robert Guidiguian, but given that Prevert IS Prevert there's also a lot of poetic touches and subtle dialogue. Indeed it is tempting to think that the Batala he wrote for Jules Berry was a rough draft for the real Devil that Berry would play a few years later in Les Visiteurs du Soir. Arguably one of the earliest uses of 'flashback' it is also full of holes - the flashback is related by a laundress who has fled with Amedee Lange to a small inn on the border; realizing that the proprietor and customers have recognized Lange as a man wanted for murder, she offers to tell his (Lange's) story and then let them decide whether or not to turn him in. However roughly half of what she relates is stuff of which she herself had no direct knowledge, conversations to which she was not privy, etc. If we make allowances for this we are left with a fairly engrossing story verging on a morality play of good (Lange) versus evil (Batala) and workers banding together and unlike La Belle Equipe remaining bonded via the glue of Lange's humanity. In many small ways it feels earlier than nineteen thirty six but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Now available in a boxed set of 3 Renoir titles of which La Grande Illusion stands out.

Jean Renoir is one of the classic French directors and films like La Grande Illusion and The Human Beast show that. This film, The Crime of Monsieur Lange, is not one of the man's best films; but it's still a more than adequate example of French film-making in the 1930's. Adapted from a story by Jean Castanyer (the same man that wrote the story for Renoir's earlier film 'Boudu Saved from Drowning'),The Crime of Monsieur Lange tells the story of a man and woman that bed down in a hotel for the night. The man is recognised by the patrons as being the same man that killed another man, but before they can turn him in; the woman decides to tell the story of exactly why her man is a murderer and then let the customers decide whether or not he should be convicted. This premise offers an interesting base for a film, as themes of justice and morality can easily be tied in; but this is the film's main problem. While Renoir presents the story behind the murder in an interesting way, we never really get into whether or not the protagonist should be convicted.

The film is left open ended, probably so that the audience can 'make their own minds up' about the events; but this idea is never really explored and it's a shame because it could have presented a very interesting backbone for the movie. Quite what Renoir's intentions were for this film, therefore, are rather quite muddled. The film is never exciting enough to be considered a straight thriller, the story isn't deep enough for it to be a deep and complex drama, and we're not presented with enough themes for it to be viewed as a cross section of justice and morality. Jean Renoir seems to have been too much of a complex man to have simply intended this film as a quick Saturday-morning style drama, and themes of living in France at the time aside, that's pretty much what this is. The actual drama in the film is good, however, with the actors giving life to their characters through realistic acting. Renoir's direction is as assured and as vivacious as ever, and you really get the impression with this man that he really puts his back into making films. This certainly isn't a bad movie; but it's not great either. Most people, like me, would probably expect a little more from Renoir...but it's still worth seeing.