REMORQUES (1941)

The crew of the Cyclone, a French rescue tugboat, is celebrating the wedding of one of their own when a messenger arrives with an SOS from the Mirva, a ship at sea foundering in a storm with a broken rudder. André, the captain, rounds up his crew, even the new groom—and even a man who is making out with another crew member's wife—leaving behind his own wife Yvonne (whom we learn has a possibly dangerous heart flutter) to worry about him. They head out in the howling storm and eventually manage to find the ship and toss them a tow rope, but there is trouble on board the Mirva. Marc, the unscrupulous and unliked captain, knows he'll have to pay a large sum for the rescue and is tempted to actually sabotage the operation by cutting the tow rope once they get within view of the shore, in which case the rescue fee wouldn't have to be paid. Some of his crew leave the ship on a raft, and Marc's unhappy wife Catherine joins them. Marc manages to pull off his sabotage plan, angering André and his men who have spent hours getting the Mirva back to shore. When the two confront each other, André punches Marc out and helps Catherine, who is leaving her husband for good, find a hotel in town. André is buffeted by emotional crises: when his bosses refuse to investigate the behavior of the Mirva's captain, André threatens to quit, and when his wife becomes more and more clingy (she has kept the seriousness of her heart condition a secret), he starts spending time with Catherine, leading to a torrid affair conducted in a dilapidated house on the beach. When Yvonne's illness becomes too obvious to ignore, and when a new rescue call comes through, André will have to make some decisions.

This film by French director Jean Grémillon seems pretty solidly like a work of poetic realism, a film that stresses the sorrows of working class life, but presents them in scenes of visual beauty. Most of this film looks great, with nighttime scenes shrouded in fog and daytime scenes shown in gleaming brightness. Of course, the lives of the principal characters seem mostly lived in a sort of existentialist fog, and we're aware that, despite the bonhomie of the opening wedding party, there will be no happy endings here. Jean Gabin, the masculine but sensitive king of French poetic realism, is absolutely perfect for this role, and the beautiful Michele Morgan couldn't be better as Catherine. Their relationship could have been developed a bit more, but their chemistry gets us through the doubts we may have about how these two wind up involved. Madeleine Renaud is appropriately fragile as Yvonne even if the character remains something of a cipher. Some OK special effects (lots of miniatures) are used in the storm sequence. At heart, this is a predictable soap opera romance worth seeing for its visuals and lead performances. The French title translates literally as a vehicle that pulls or tugs, but the American title, Stormy Waters, is more descriptive. Pictured are Gabin and Morgan. [DVD]