The head doctor of a failing sanatorium accepts a million francs from a mysterious government agent to harbour a new fake patient. This new inmate is said to be an inventor of a new devastating nuclear device, as a consequence, a swarm of international spies are drawn to the hospital.

Les Espions is a film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot who was tagged as the French Hitchcock before that term was applied later to Claude Chabrol. He rose to prominence with films such as the suspense classic Les Diaboliques (1955). Les Espions is a much less well-known film, in fairness this is probably partially as a result of it being a less successful end product. It has a much more ambiguous tone to it, with it starting out for the most part as a black comedy, which by the end turns deadly serious. It's an unusual combination and one which I'm not sure entirely works, with the sillier story elements working against the more serious undertones. I actually thought the ending was very good and the darker aspects more successful but I felt they were lessened a little by the more light-hearted comic tone that made up much of the earlier part of the film, which was a sort of spies vs. spies scenario with the hapless doctor in the middle constantly wondering who can be trusted? I think this is one of those movies which would be improved on a re-watch, given that once you know what it isn't as much as what it is, I expect it will be much easier to get into its rhythm and get on board with its unusual tone. On first viewing I found this to be somewhat uneven, yet aspects of it definitely left me intrigued. Even if the whole doesn't fit together perfectly, this is still certainly a film with a bit of originality.

Getting set to watch a number of French films over the next few months,I decided to ask fellow IMDbers about what their top movies from France are. Talking to a fellow IMDber,I found out about a title from auteur film maker Henri-Georges Clouzot which gets regularly overlooked,which led to me getting ready to go spying with Clouzot.

The plot:

Struggling to cover the running costs of his mental hospital, psychiatrist Dr Malik is taken aback when a strange called Howard offers Malik a million francs. Finding a quiet corner of the bar,Howard reveals that he is a secret agent,and that he wants to pay Malik,so that a mysterious person called Alex can stay as a patient.In desperate need of cash,Malik accepts the offer.

Before he leaves,Howard tells Malik that he should get ready for run ins with a number of strangers,some of whom are on Howard's side,and others who want to get their hands on Alex.Hitting a brick wall in his attempts to get more info from Howard,Malik goes back to the hospital.Returning to the hospital,Malik finds that his old staff have been replaced with a new gang,who are keen to learn about where Alex is.

View on the film:

Finding spies in every corner,co-writer/(along with Jérôme Géronimi) director Henri-Georges Clouzot & cinematographer Christian Matras brilliantly find confined spaces by every hospital bed,with Clouzot and Matras stylishly cornering Malik and allowing the smell of Film Noir unease to steam across the screen.Placing Malik in a headlock of paranoia,Clouzot superbly gives the spy activities a depth of field by making even the smallest glance from someone in the background be a thread of mistrust which surrounds Malik.

Spied from the novel by Egon Hostovsky,the screenplay by Clouzot & Géronimi dices the Film Noir espionage with quirky Comedy peeling away the identify of each spy,until it corkscrews into their mysterious shadows.Keeping Malik away from knowing the full deal of everything Alex and Howard are involved in,the writers brilliantly stoke Malik's Film Noir anxiety with deliciously shady characters from a battle axe agent to a businessman who put his hands too close to the flames.Ending on a chillingly open note,the writers water down some of the impact by making the various spy double crossings too tangled,that causes Malik's doubts to occasionally be put on the side-lines.

Leaving Malik in a daze,Paul Carpenter gives a whip-smart performance as fast talking Howard,whilst Peter Ustinov gives a great,playful performance as Michel Kiminsky.Joined by a delicate Véra Clouzot as patient Lucie, Gérard Séty gives an excellent performance as Malik,whose frustrations of being completely out of the comfort zone Séty grinds to the brittle Film Noir bones,as the spies spy on the spy.

In common, I would guess, with anyone who had seen and admired the earlier work of Clouzot beginning with Le Corbeau and culminating in Les Diaboliques, I approached this with taste buds primed for major salivation only to be disappointed. This has to be a one-off, a thriller sans thrills. At times it resembles one of those creaky British B-pictures of the thirties and forties so that you almost expect Wilfrid Lawson to emerge out of a pea-souper and stare meaningfully at Kynaston Reeves. For reasons best known to himself Clouzot even finds work for Paul Carpenter, surely the most inept and wooden actor on either side of the Channel, matched only by Laurence Harvey and Alan Lake. Having bought it on DVD I shall, I suppose, watch it again on the off chance that there really is something I'm missing besides a few brain cells shed in the time it took to unspool.