Scripted by frequent Feyder collaborator Charles Spaak, the film focuses on lawyer Pierre Martel, who runs up huge debts to help keep his mistress, Florence, in style. In order to avoid charges of embezzlement, Pierre signs up with the Foreign Legion intending to ‘forget’. Soon after he meets Blanche who reads cards and predicts he will be reunited with his beloved. Pierre begins keeping time with Irma, a prostitute suffering of amnesia, who looks strangely like Florence, only as a brunette. In order to accentuate the doubt of the hero obsessed by two women, similar in many ways, yet different, Feyder had Mary Bell’s voice as Irma dubbed by Claude Marcy. ‘Le grand jeu’ is one of Feyder’s more interesting. Its ‘realist-poetic’ sensitivity - seedy decors and world-weary characters - is greatly enhanced by wonderful performances, especially by Rosay.” Reference: Ginette Vincendeau, “The companion to French cinema”, London: BFI Publishing, 1996, p. 76. Robert Siodmak directed a re-make of ‘Le grand jeu’ in 1954.
Credits: Director, Jacques Feyder ; writers, Jacques Feyder, Charles Spaak ; photography, Harry Stradling ; music, Hanns Eisler ; art director, Lazare Meerson ; assistant director, Marcel Carne.
Cast: Pierre-Richard Willm, Mary Bell, Francoise Rosay, Charles Vanel, Georges Pitoeff, Pierre Larquey.
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
X000198
Language
French
Subject category
Foreign language films
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)