Le Quai des Brumes

One of the finest examples of French ‘Noir’ - LE QUAI DES BRUMES (PORT OF SHADOWS) has just been released in glorious 4K Blu-ray format though the film is not just a visual treat. Jean Gabin and Michélle Morgan star as doomed lovers unable to escape their fate despite a seemingly fool-proof plan.

The film, considered a cornerstone in so far as it combined elements of poetic realism with those of Film Noir, was made in 1938 and one year later it won France’s prestigious ‘Prix Louis-Delluc’ award. Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, the story concerns army deserter Jean (J. Gabin) attempting to hitch a lift during a particularly foggy night. The country road looks like the kind of road where a vehicle rolls by every other hour, therefore Jean is delighted when a truck driver stops though within no time the two quarrel over this and that but mainly over a stray dog , who also trotting along the lonely road and is eager to hitch a lift… Eventually, the vehicle arrives in the port town of Le Havre, just as shrouded in fog as the country road that took them there. To the truck driver’s amusement, the stray dog, which Jean simply refers to as Mutt and who seems to get on his nerves, follows him wherever he goes.

Starving and tired, Jean finds an almost deserted bar almost at the outskirts of town and manages to get some grub and civilian clothes. Despite coming across as outwardly grumpy, Jean does have a heart and succumbs to Mutt’s puppy eyes, resulting in the dog getting almost more sausage than our deserter. A short while after, still eating, his eye catches a female silhouette standing in the corner of the tavern. Upon closer inspection, she turns out to be Nelly (M. Morgan), a 17-year old runaway (Morgan was 18 at the time of filming). More to the point, Nelly isn’t a runaway in the classical sense… She simply ran away from her godfather Zabel (Michel Simon), who happens to live in the same town and provides Nelly with a roof over her head. Outwardly friendly, Zabel is in fact a jealous, dodgy and altogether vile individual who has his hands in illegal trade. Which brings us back to Nelly, who is a gangster’s moll - only that her lover Maurice (whom she never really loved as she later confesses) suddenly seems to have vanished from the face of the earth.

Enter Lucien (Pierre Brasseur), the local gangster who likes to act tough but finds himself humiliated on various occasions when he has several run-ins with Jean, mainly over Nelly, who is certain that Lucien, who had unfinished business with her missing boyfriend, is somehow responsible for Maurice’s unexplained disappearance. In short, Lucien disgusts Nelly but that doesn’t stop him from pursuing her romantically and the situation only gets worse when he realises that Nelly has fallen for Jean… and vice versa. During one particularly nasty altercation at a fairground, where the famous kissing scene between Jean and Nelly takes place, Jean slaps the gangster in the face again, to the roaring laughter of bystanders. Only this time ‘round, Lucien swears revenge. Meanwhile, Nelly, who has returned to her godfather’s abode, finds a pair of cufflinks in his wine cellar which belonged to Maurice. Realising that it is Zabel and not Lucien who is responsible for the ‘disappearance’ of Maurice, she now has the upper hand by demanding Zabel keep stumm about his knowledge of Jean being a deserter, or she will report him to the police as a possible murder suspect. For Nelly, it is particularly important that Jean, despite her feelings for him, will board a ship for Venezuela in time and if Zabel would create problems, Jean can forget about escaping to South America. The options are laid bare and seem straightforward but fate has other plans in store…

Jean Gabin, the master of ‘minimal acting’, delivers a bravura performance as a man on the run torn between his feelings for a woman and starting a new life far, far away. The impossibly sultry Michélle Morgan is perfectly cast as the dame Jean falls for while Michel Simon excels in his portrayal as the creepier than creepy Zabel. Eugen Schüftan’s exquisite cinematography captures the brooding, fog-filled atmosphere of Le Havre’s dock area and Marcel Carné, who would go on to create cinematic masterpieces like LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS (CHILDREN OF PARADISE) already demonstrated a skilled hand as a director, despite ‘Port of Shadows’ only his third feature film. What’s particularly interesting here is the difference between American Film Noir, often punctuated by typical ‘tough-talk’ one-liners such as “Why don’t you quit crying and get me some bourbon?” and the French Noir dialogue, which comes across as considerably more poetic, even when spoken by a gangster.

Bonus Material includes various audio options, Introduction by Ginette Vincendeau, The Poetry of Misfortune and Alternate credits.