La môme vert-de-gris
Encyclopedia
La môme vert-de-gris released in the USA as Poison Ivy, is a 1953 French movie, adapted from the 1937 Lemmy Caution
thriller Poison Ivy by Peter Cheyney
, which had been in 1945 the first title published in Marcel Duhamel
's Série noire
. It was French director Bernard Borderie
's first film, as well as American-born French actor Eddie Constantine
's. The story involves FBI agent Caution investigating gold smuggling activity in Casablanca.
Considered either "tongue-in-cheek" or "doddery", the film "utilizes all the rules of the genre, albeit without convictions: chases, fistfights, nightclubs, unusual settings, knowing winks at the public".
It was a commercial success in France (3,846,158 French entries in 1953) and was followed by 7 other Lemmy Caution films until 1967, not counting Jean-Luc Godard
's "incomprehensible" Alphaville, a strange adventure of Lemmy Caution, casting Constantine and Vernon. Constantine's enduring success started with this. This film was considered "emblematic of French postwar attitudes towards the United States: a fascination for U.S. culture tempered by fear of U.S. dominance".
Lemmy Caution
Lemmy Caution is a fictitious Federal Bureau of Investigation agent created by Peter Cheyney, who published the first book about him in 1936...
thriller Poison Ivy by Peter Cheyney
Peter Cheyney
Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse Cheyney, known as Peter Cheyney, was a British crime fiction writer who flourished between 1936 and 1951...
, which had been in 1945 the first title published in Marcel Duhamel
Marcel Duhamel
Marcel Duhamel was a French actor and screenwriter, founder of the Série noire publishing imprint.He played The Foreman in Jean Renoir's 1936 The Crime of Monsieur Lange....
's Série noire
Série noire
Série noire is a French publishing imprint, founded in 1945 by Marcel Duhamel. It has released a collection of crime fiction of the hardboiled detective thrillers variety published by Gallimard....
. It was French director Bernard Borderie
Bernard Borderie
Bernard Borderie , son of Raymond Borderie, one of the producers of Les Enfants du Paradis , was a French film director and screenwriter.-Selected filmography:...
's first film, as well as American-born French actor Eddie Constantine
Eddie Constantine
Eddie Constantine was an American-born French actor and singer who spent his career working in Europe....
's. The story involves FBI agent Caution investigating gold smuggling activity in Casablanca.
Crew
- Director: Bernard BorderieBernard BorderieBernard Borderie , son of Raymond Borderie, one of the producers of Les Enfants du Paradis , was a French film director and screenwriter.-Selected filmography:...
- Screenplay: Bernard Borderie and Jacques Berland
- Assistant director: André Smagghe
- Cinematography: Jacques Lemare
- Music: Guy Lafarge
Cast
- Lemmy Caution: Eddie ConstantineEddie ConstantineEddie Constantine was an American-born French actor and singer who spent his career working in Europe....
- Carlotta de la Rue: Dominique WilmsDominique Wilms-Selected filmography:* Les pépées font la loi * Bombs on Monte Carlo * Caesar the Conqueror * Panic in Bangkok * A Ace and Four Queens * Um Null Uhr schnappt die Falle zu -External links:...
- Rudy Saltierra: Howard VernonHoward VernonHoward Vernon was a Swiss actor.Vernon was born Mario Lippert to a Swiss father and an American mother and was fluent in German, English, and French...
- Joe Madrigal: Dario MorenoDarío MorenoDarío Moreno was a Turkish polyglot singer of Jewish origin, as well as an accomplished composer, lyricist and guitarist, who was born in Aydın, Turkey, in 1921, and who attained fame and made a remarkable career centered in France which also included films, during the fifties and the...
Synopsis
Set in Casablanca, it recycles aspects of the atmospheric noirish French films of the 1930s together with pulp-fiction American detective films of the post-war period.Considered either "tongue-in-cheek" or "doddery", the film "utilizes all the rules of the genre, albeit without convictions: chases, fistfights, nightclubs, unusual settings, knowing winks at the public".
It was a commercial success in France (3,846,158 French entries in 1953) and was followed by 7 other Lemmy Caution films until 1967, not counting Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's "incomprehensible" Alphaville, a strange adventure of Lemmy Caution, casting Constantine and Vernon. Constantine's enduring success started with this. This film was considered "emblematic of French postwar attitudes towards the United States: a fascination for U.S. culture tempered by fear of U.S. dominance".