The Mysteries of Paris (1962)
The Marquis Rodolphe de Sombrueil accidentally runs over a working man with his carriage and helps his widow -- unjustly accused of robbery -- to find her missing daughter.
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a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
"Les mystères de Paris" was one of the most famous melodramatic popular novels in the 19th century:completely implausible,it nevertheless displays a lot of qualities:its depiction of the lowest depths of the society was sometimes impressive;a sinister-looking gallery of characters unforgettable:Monsieur Pipelet,La Chouette,Le Maître d'école,Le Chourineur...In its own way,it paved a reliable way for Hugo's "les misérables".Keeping from Eugène Sue nothing but the proper nouns-and adding two lead characters(Raymond Pellegrin's baron and Dany Robin's Irene that do not even belong to the novel)-André Hunebelle 's treatment is not faithful to the original story and offers a muddled screenplay ,even more far-fetched than Sue's mammoth work (more than 1,000 pages).In France,it was the end of the swashbuckler era,and Jean Marais was about to ditch the genre for the broader horizons of the spy thriller .But here,he's still the hero,fighting for a maiden orphan -played by Jill Haworth,whom Hunebelle found in the "Exodus" cast-.One must indicate that Marais does the stunts himself,as in all his other movies,and here he delivers the goods!Word to the wise:try,if you can, to see Jacques de Baroncelli's version (1943)which 's got a stellar cast.It's very hard to find,but entertaining.