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A Scandal In Paris

1946, Movie, NR, 100 mins

A Scandal In Paris: Review

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Based on the exploits of real-life criminal Francois Eugene Vidocq, A SCANDAL IN PARIS stars Sanders in the lead role. Set during the Napoleonic era, the film begins with Sanders and Tamiroff escaping from prison while serving time for theft. Sanders, a charismatic and enterprising criminal, engineers a number of crimes before joining Napoleon's army for a short while. Later, when Sanders meets Hasso and discovers that her father is an important official, he sets his sights on becoming chief of police. Under the name Lt. Rousseau, Sanders becomes the police chief, heading the French Surete and filling vacant posts with his crooked friends. He makes plans for his ultimate crime, the burglary of The Bank of Paris, but is dissuaded by Hasso. Sanders then turns his back on the life of crime. Although attacked by the critics upon its release, A SCANDAL IN PARIS has become one of director Sirk's most thematically and stylistically telling films--providing insight into the "Sirk hero" who would later be embodied most prominently in the Rock Hudson vehicles MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954), ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1956), and the masterpiece, WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1957). A SCANDAL IN PARIS was originally planned as one of two Sanders/Tamiroff vehicles, the other to be called "Cagliostro," based on Alexandre Dumas' novel, Memoirs of a Physician. "Cagliostro," however, fell through, so Sirk went ahead with the adaptation of the Memoirs of Vidocq. Sirk's film is not the only work to be based on Vidocq. Novelist Honore de Balzac's character Inspector Vautrin from his classic Le Pere Goriot and Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue also took Vidocq as their model. A SCANDAL IN PARIS was cophotographed by the brilliant Eugen Schuftan who, because of his German background and union regulations, had to work uncredited. Schuftan also went unbilled on two previous Sirk films, HITLER'S MADMAN (1942) and SUMMER STORM (1944). leave a comment
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