Bête Humaine, La (1938) review

A train conductor (Jean Gabin) with a history of going crazy at a moment's notice gets involved in a bizarre love triangle with a malevolent wife (Simone Simon) and her bitter husband (who just murdered her last lover). It's a lot darker than what Renoir generally put out, and the construction seems rather pat: Simon turns her men against each other and like idiots they line up to be ruined - as with Children of Paradise, she's a female lead that's supposed to be irresistible but never - to my eyes - gives off irresistible qualities. Still, love is blind and crazy, and Renoir's direction is fine as usual (to make it look 'real,' he shot parts of this on an actual locomotive, almost killing Claude, his nephew and cinematographer!).