The Trump Card (French: Dernier atout) is a 1942 French crime film directed by Jacques Becker and starring Mireille Balin, Raymond Rouleau and Pierre Renoir.[1]

The Trump Card
Directed byJacques Becker
Written by
Produced byAndré Halley des Fontaines
Starring
CinematographyNicolas Hayer
Edited byMarguerite Renoir
Music byJean Alfaro
Production
company
L'Essor Cinématographique Français
Distributed byPathé Consortium Cinéma
Release date
  • 2 September 1942 (1942-09-02)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

The film marked Becker's full debut as a director, although he had briefly worked on Cristobal's Gold in 1940. It was filmed partly on the French Riviera, which stood in for South America. Interiors were filmed at the Victorine Studios and at Pathé's studio in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director Max Douy. During production Becker used the pretext of filming to liaise between French Resistance groups in Paris and the South.[2]

Synopsis

edit

In a Latin American country, two young policeman finish joint top of their graduating detective class. To separate them, they take on an investigation at a luxury hotel to see who is the better detective. The case proves however, to have been the murder of a notorious American gangster, killed by his former associates from Chicago.

Cast

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Lloyd & Robinson p.163
  2. ^ Crisp p.194

Bibliography

edit
  • C.G. Crisp The Classic French Cinema, 1930-1960. Indiana University Press, 1993.
  • Ann Lloyd & David Robinson. The Illustrated history of the cinema. Macmillan, 1987.
edit