Casque d'or (1952)

Director:

Jacques Becker

Writers:

Jacques Becker (scenario) and
Jacques Companéez (scenario) ...

Release Date:

18 August 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

L'histoire d'une femme dont chaque amour fut...

Plot:

In an open-air dance hall, the members of Leca's gang are relaxing with their ladies. One of them, Marie...

Plot Keywords:

Dance Hall | Death | Carpenter | Gang | Love

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Simone Signoret	...	Marie 'Casque d'Or'
Serge Reggiani	...	Georges Manda
Claude Dauphin	...	Félix Leca
Raymond Bussières	...	Raymond
Odette Barencey	...	La mère d'Eugène
Loleh Bellon	...	Léonie Danard
Solange Certin
Jacqueline Dane
Daniel Mendaille	...	Le patron de la guinguette / Guinguette
Dominique Davray	...	Julie
Paul Barge	...	L'inspecteur Juliani / Police Insp. Giuliani
Paul Azaïs	...	Ponsard
Claude Castaing	...	Fredo
Jean Clarieux	...	Paul
Tony Corteggiani	...	Le commissaire / Superintendent

Also Known As:

Golden Helmet
Golden Marie (USA)
Goldhelm (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Amores de Apache (Brazil) [pt]
Aquela Loira (Portugal) [pt]
Casco d'oro (Italy) [it]
Casque d'or (Belgium: French title) [fr]
Casque d'or (Argentina) [es]
Gouden helm (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Hrysoun kranos (Greece) [el]
Möte under stjärnorna (Sweden) [sv]
París, bajos fondos (Spain) [es]
Rakastajatar (Finland) [fi]
Zloty kask (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

96 min | USA:94 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Optiphone)

Certification:

UK:PG (2007) | UK:X (1952) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Annet-sur-Marne, Seine-et-Marne, France

Company:

Robert et Raymond Hakim

Trivia:

The original plotline for the film was about an executioner and a criminal, instead of the heartfelt romance that ultimately made up the plot.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Jackpot 2 (1982)

A hymn to voluptuous, mature beauty

Despite the corsets and petticoats and horse-drawn cabs, this lush, richly textured film has more in common with the bleak, fatalistic modern-dress films of the period than with conventional historical romance. The action takes place over the course of only a few days, but in France that's long enough for a passion strong enough to change a life, or end it--more than one man dies because of the bewitching Marie and her golden hair that shines like the sun. The intensity of the characters' emotions and the suddenness of their violence is powerfully countered by the reserve of the playing--of the solemn, laconic toughs and of Simone Signoret as Marie. In moments of great emotion, her slight smile changes to a broad one, but with her lips still closed. There's none of the giggling and wriggling that marked the other blonde Fifties sex symbols, Bardot and Monroe, and countless others since, and obviously no nudity, total or partial, but in her morning-after scene with Serge Reggiani, you can practically smell smoke.

Like Zola's Nana, Marie is neither a villain nor a victim, simply an elemental force of nature. This elemental-woman business can, in French and non-French movies, be pretentious and unwittingly comic, but there's none of that here, because neither Signoret nor the director indulge in any fancy dialogue or vocal tricks to play up how alluring she is--they don't have to. We are always aware of Marie as a figure of enormous strength, with a broad, strong back, round shoulders spilling out of her blouse, and a mouth too wide for coyness.

In an otherwise favourable review, Pauline Kael said that the film's tone was slightly trashy, as if it were saying, of the low-life characters, "Look, they have feelings too." I disagree--the scene of the wealthy, slumming group in evening dress who find the characters "marvelously amusing" show us what Becker thinks of that viewpoint and implicitly reproaches anyone who shares it.