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Scandal in Paris

Scandal in Paris

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • Black & White


Description:

Suave, sardonic George Sanders eases through one of his most perfectly suited roles in this sly Douglas Sirk comedy, based on the (highly questionable) remembrances of real-life French rascal turned respected lawman and author Vidoq. Sanders plays his aristocratic thief with a blasé attitude and bemused smile. Born in a jail (his home for most of his life, as it turns out), he cons his way up from the gutter to high society. He rechristens himself with a name purloined from a fancy graveyard headstone and lands a position as the Paris chief of police after an elaborate display of Sherlock Holmesian deduction uncovers a cache of jewels stolen from his patron's house (jewels he stole himself, of course). It puts him in the perfect place to plot his biggest caper ever: cleaning out the Bank of Paris. Akim Tamiroff plays his croaking sidekick (a frog to Sanders's prince of crime, or perhaps more accurately a dragon to the sneaky St. George), and Gene Lockhart is his nemesis, the disgraced former chief of police who emerges as less a figure of fun than a sad clown. Sirk shot this little gem on a low budget almost belied by the tiny but richly realized sets, beautifully designed settings that create a Paris in miniature. His Continental wit and Sanders's droll delivery and impeccable manners add a knowing wink to the production. --Sean Axmaker
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