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Mauvaise Graine

Mauvaise Graine

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Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • Black & White


Description:

While fleeing to Hollywood from the Nazi threat in Germany, Billy Wilder laid over in Paris long enough to make his directing debut. Which means Mauvaise Graine just happens to be the beginning of one of the great directing careers in movies. This lark, codirected by Alexander Esway, follows a wealthy young man who falls in with a gang of thieves. It has the wonderful feel of open-air French filmmaking of the 1930s, and Wilder's direction has the anything-goes spirit of an ambitious kid throwing away his training wheels. A bonus is the leading lady, the charming Danielle Darrieux (still starring in movies in 2002's Eight Women), then a teenager. It may be a rough sketch for the Wilder movies to come, but the sense of adventure and the bittersweet tone are unmistakable. --Robert Horton
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