''Le Corbeau'' () is a 1943 French film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and starring

Pierre Fresnay Pierre Fresnay (4 April 1897 – 9 January 1975) was a French stage and film actor. Biography Born Pierre Jules Louis Laudenbach, he was encouraged by his uncle, actor Claude Garry, to pursue a career in theater and film. He joined the company a ...

, Micheline Francey and

Pierre Larquey Pierre Larquey (10 July 1884 – 17 April 1962) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1913 and 1962. Born in Cénac, Gironde, France, he died in Maisons-Laffitte at the age of 77. Selected filmography * ''Patr ...

. The film is about a French town where a number of citizens receive anonymous letters containing libelous information, particularly targeting a doctor accused of providing abortion services. The mystery surrounding the letters eventually escalates into violence. The film caused serious problems for its director after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

as it had been produced by

Continental Films Continental Films was a German-controlled French film production company. It stood as the sole authorized film production organization in Nazi-occupied France. Established in October 1940, it was entirely bankrolled by the German government, and ...

, a German production company established near the beginning of the

Occupation of France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

, and because the film had been perceived by the underground and the Communist press as vilifying the French people. Because of this, Clouzot was initially banned for life from directing in France, but after protests only until 1947. The film was suppressed until 1969. It was remade as '' The 13th Letter'' (1951) by

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...

Plot

In a small French town identified as "anywhere", anonymous

poison pen A poison pen letter is a letter or note containing unpleasant, abusive, or malicious statements or accusations about the recipient or a third party. It is usually sent anonymously. In the term "poison pen" (or poisoned pen), the word poison is u ...

letters are sent by somebody signing as "''Le Corbeau''" (the Raven). The letters start by accusing doctor Rémy Germain of having an affair with Laura Vorzet, the pretty young wife of the elderly psychiatrist Dr. Vorzet. Germain is also accused of practising illegal abortions. Letters are then sent to virtually all the population of the town, but keep getting back to the initial victim, Dr. Germain. The situation becomes increasingly serious when a patient of the hospital commits suicide with his straight razor after the Raven writes to him that his cancer is terminal. Laura Vorzet's sister Marie Corbin, a nurse in the infirmary, becomes a suspect and is arrested, but soon new letters arrive. When one letter is dropped in a church from a gallery, it becomes apparent the Raven must be one of the people seated there at the time. They are gathered to re-write the Raven's letters as dictated by Dr. Vorzet, to compare the handwriting. Germain's lover Denise is suspected when she faints during the dictation, only for Laura to be identified by material found on her blotter. Germain agrees to sign an order committing Laura as insane; he is called away to attend Denise, who has fallen downstairs, but before he leaves Laura protests she wrote the Raven's first letters before Dr. Vorzet began dictating them, making him the true Raven. Just as the ambulance takes Laura away, Germain returns to find Dr. Vorzet dead at his desk, his throat cut by the cancer patient's mother as he was writing the Raven's final, triumphant letter.

Cast

Production

The film is loosely based on an anonymous letter case that had begun in the town of

Tulle Tulle (; ) is a commune in central France. It is the third-largest town in the former region of Limousin and is the capital of the department of Corrèze, in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Tulle is also the episcopal see of the Roman Cat ...

Limousin Limousin (; oc, Lemosin ) is a former administrative region of southwest-central France. On 1 January 2016, it became part of the new administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It comprised three departments: Corrèze, Creuse, and Haute-Vienn ...

, in 1917. Anonymous letters had been sent by somebody signing "the eye of the tiger". The first version of the screenplay was written by

Louis Chavance Louis Chavance (1907–1979) was a French screenwriter. He also worked occasionally as a film editor and assistant director. He is best known for his screenplay for ''Le Corbeau'' which he first wrote in 1933 although the film was not made for anot ...

shortly after the Tulle letters, years before it was finally produced.

Henri Jeanson Henri Jules Louis Jeanson (6 March 1900 in Paris – 6 November 1970 in Équemauville) was a French writer and journalist. He was a "satrap" in the "College of 'Pataphysics". As a journalist before World War II Jeanson was born on 6 March ...

, "The Return of Clouzot's ''Le Corbeau'' or The Commies vs. ''Le Corbeau''," ''

L'Intransigeant ''L'Intransigeant'' was a French newspaper founded in July 1880 by Henri Rochefort. Initially representing the left-wing opposition, it moved towards the right during the Boulanger affair (Rochefort supported Boulanger) and became a major right-wi ...

'', 10 September 1947. The film credits Clouzot for adapting the story himself, and both Clouzot and Chavance for writing the dialogue. ''Le Corbeau'' was produced by Continental Films, which aside from being a German company established during Occupation, was known for making detective films "with a light, even comic tone" and often featuring

,Alan Williams,
Le Corbeau
" ''

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

'', 16 February 2004, URL accessed 21 June 2016. who played Germain in this film. Clouzot previously worked with Fresnay on another Continental Films project, '' The Murderer Lives at Number 21'' (1942). Writer

Joseph Kessel Joseph Kessel (10 February 1898 – 23 July 1979), also known as "Jef", was a French journalist and novelist. He was a member of the Académie française and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. Biography Kessel was born to a Jewish family in ...

later criticised the film's Continental origins, noting ''Le Corbeau'' was funded by the Germans, and in that context could be seen as a statement on French corruption. Kessel questioned if the film would be made if it were set in Germany.

, "The ''Corbeau'' Affair (continued)," ''

'', 27 September 1947. It was shot at the Billancourt Studios in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

with location filming around

Montfort-l'Amaury Montfort-l'Amaury () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region, north central France. It is located north of Rambouillet. The name comes from Amaury I de Montfort, the first ''seigneur'' (lord) of Montfort. Geogra ...

. The film's sets were designed by the art director Andrej Andrejew.

Release

''Le Corbeau'' was released in France on September 28, 1943. Although after the war ''Le Corbeau'' was banned and leftists supported keeping the ban in place, the film was screened in cineclubs throughout France and often drew thousands of moviegoers. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by

. This DVD is out of print and the Blu-ray was made available in 2022.

Reception

In 1947, the film was released commercially, with writer

praising it as a major piece in French cinema, arguing it was repulsive, but, when compared to reality, became nearly romantic. Despite criticising its origins, Joseph Kessel, writing in response to Jeanson, said that ''Le Corbeau'' was indisputably a remarkable film. Writing in 2004, Professor Alan Williams judged ''Le Corbeau'' to be "the first classic French film noir", though made before the term film noir was coined. He found low-key humour in the screenplay and also argued it posed "a properly philosophical debate about the effects of the German occupation", comparing the atmosphere created by the Raven's letters to that under Occupation. One notable legacy of the film was to make "crow" a term for a malicious informant. In 1984, an anonymous letter-writer and phone-caller taunted a young family in Lépanges-sur-Vologne (France). The family's four- year-old son Gregory was abducted and found drowned in the river. The media labelled the anonymous killer (or killers) 'Le Corbeau'. No one has been apprehended for the crime. In 2006, the film enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in Paris after the

Clearstream affair The Clearstream affair was a political scandal in France in the run-up to the 2007 presidential election. The name refers to the Luxembourg bank Clearstream Banking S.A, now wholly owned by Deutsche Börse, which was alleged to have aided many pr ...

, in which anonymous letters accused French politicians of having hidden bank accounts.

References

External links

* * *
''Le Corbeau''
an essay by Alan Williams at the Criterion Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Corbeau, Le 1943 films 1940s mystery thriller films 1940s psychological thriller films French black-and-white films Film noir Films directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot Films set in France 1940s French-language films French psychological thriller films Films with screenplays by Henri-Georges Clouzot Films shot at Billancourt Studios French mystery thriller films Continental Films films 1940s French films