Casque d'Or
Director: Jacques Becker
Year Released: 1952
Rating: 2.0
Standard love-triangle fare: reformed criminal loves girl, girl is still tied to unreformed criminal who wants to control her, reformed criminal and unreformed criminal do battle over girl. Being a fan of Becker's more 'masculine' films, like Le Trou and Touchez Pas au Grisbi I found his attempts at romanticism here to be weak - he relies too heavily on Simone Signoret's Botticelliesque beauty instead of fleshing out her character (the way Renoir relied too much on Ingrid Bergman's looks in Elena and Her Men). Though predictable, it's relatively easy viewing.
