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MovieMail's Review
George Sanders relishes his role as elegant French criminal Vidocq in this lighthearted drama. Filled with great Hollywood supporting players, it's a glorious romp, says James Oliver.
Eugène François Vidocq was one of those characters whose life was more improbable than anything a writer could invent – indeed, his story inspired work by both Balzac (Illusions Perdues) and Hugo (Les Misérables, no less). After making a profitable living as a thief, forger and con-man, Vidocq did an abrupt 180 degree turn and became a policeman, founding France’s Sûreté Nationale and establishing the techniques that are still the bedrock of modern detection.
A Scandal in Paris tells Vidocq’s story, although in true Hollywood style, it’s more faithful to the spirit of the tale than the details. After breaking out of jail, our hero (George Sanders) teams up with roguish Emile (Akim Tamiroff) to enjoy a life of crime.
But petty theft proves insufficient for the ambitious Vidocq, who has his eye on bigger things. Ingratiating himself into high society, he succeeds in getting himself appointed chief of police, in charge of security at the Bank of Paris (whose vaults hold some 15 million francs). But something terrible happens – Vidocq falls in love. Worse still, he finds himself turning honest...
A Scandal in Paris was the second teaming of Sanders and director Douglas Sirk, after their masterful Chekhov adaptation Summer Storm. It’s a sunnier film, played with charm and sly wit, and Sirk handles things with a light touch for the most part; when the film sails into deeper water, Sirk steers us with confidence and skill.
As ever, George Sanders is a delight, relishing his amoral character and the witty dialogue (his snobbish objection to stabbing someone for example: ‘It’s not a question of morals but of manners. A man who’s capable of killing with a knife is capable of eating with one’). Typical of the film’s cheeky sparkle is the lovely sequence in which he pastiches Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes act, right down to the use of the ‘elementary’ catchphrase.
Filled with some of Hollywood’s very best supporting players – Akim Tamiroff! Gene Lockhart! Vladimir Sokoloff! There’s even Skelton Knaggs! – A Scandal in Paris is, simply told, a glorious romp.
A delightful light-hearted romantic period drama from Douglas Sirk, A Scandal in Paris follows the career of elegant French criminal, François Eugène Vidocq (George Sanders), who takes his name from a tombstone and pursues a career of stealing rich women’s hearts…and their jewellery!
The drama follows him from his birth in a French jail in 1775 to his appointment as the chief of police for Paris - an appointment that gives Vidocq the opportunity to deprive Parisian’s of their money by robbing their bank! Assisted by his partner in crime Emile (Akim Tamiroff), Vidocq poses as a lieutenant to rob a showgirl (Carole Landis) of her ruby garter and steals the jewels of a marquise who invited him to stay in her home as a guest. When the marquise's granddaughter falls in love with Vidocq, the French Raffles has to decide whether to choose her and a life without blemish, the vivacious showgirl, or the beckoning bank vault!
