Crappy film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This film is excellent! I don't understand why anyone would call this the "nadir" of Sirk's career, as it is far more intelligent than any of Sirk's famous melodramas. While I enjoy those films, this remains my favorite Sirk picture. The story chronicles the misadventures of pretty rascal turned gentleman thief, Eugene Vidocq, played by the eternal screen cad George Sanders. This is one of Sanders' best caddish roles, as he sidles around chateaux and graveyards, uttering lines such as "sometimes the chains of marriage as so heavy they must be carried by three". In addition to the witty, frothy humour, there is a dark undercurrent to the film that is evidenced in its noirish photography and the amorality of the lead characters. High recommended to fans of Old Hollywood who enjoy the more eclectic films of that period!

George Sanders as Eugene Francois Vidocq, a clever French crook (and a very flimsy representation of the amazing real-life template), is both the lead actor and narrator of this film in which he neatly swindles his way from a lowly prison cell to the top of French society delivering a bounty of aphorisms along the way. The real-life Vidocq began as a rough-and- tumble child criminal and ended up a government minister.Sanders basically delivers the same polished performance seen in numerous other films, from "Man Hunt" (1941), through "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945) and "All About Eve" (1950): the cool, cultivated, continental, dry wit with just the right suggestion of the animal beneath. Carole Landis, in what may be her finest role, is both funny and chilling as a self-centered show girl who blatantly uses her beauty to catch wealthy men. Signe Hasso (who looks distractingly like Margaret Sullavan) plays the daughter of the minister of police; she falls in love with Sanders but is as lifeless and damp here as she is vivacious and crackling in "The House on 92nd Street," made the year before.The film is obviously 100% studio made, with painted backdrops to represent the French countryside. But since scenery is not the point here, this drawback can be overlooked. It's an unusual film about an extraordinary man, here reduced to a sort of Sherlock Holmes who strides both sides of the law.

"A Scandal in Paris" is a 1946 film starring George Sanders, Akim Tamiroff, Signe Hasso, and Carole Landis. Directed by Douglas Sirk, it's based on the memoirs of François-Eugène Vidocq, a thief who became the Chief of Police in the 18th Century. The story begins with Francois being born in a jail and covers his European escapades. At one point, he poses for a painting of St. George and rides off on the horse he sits on; later, a marquise's granddaughter (Hasso) falls in love with the face in the painting and recognizes him when he comes to stay with her grandmother...and steal her jewels.A very witty script that is perfect for the elegant, handsome Sanders. This role seems tailor-made for him. The beautiful Carole Landis plays one of his victims, a showgirl with a valuable garter. Sadly, by this time, her career had really stalled out. She's still a bright and glamorous presence. Hasso is an odd choice for an ingénue role, though she does a good job.Entertaining film, particularly because of George Sanders.

There. That's the gist of it. Though the script is really quite good, the picture doesn't quite come off. Sanders is perhaps too much himself here to be very interesting -- his "ennuyeux" style seems just a little TOO little, here -- which creates something of a hole at the center. On the other hand, the supporting cast, with one exception (see below) is superb. First, Akim Tamiroff at 46 in a superb makeup that makes him look not a day over 25 -- he's Sanders's comic sidekick, who, in the last reel turns surprisingly (but satisfyingly) into his nemesis. It's an amazingly detailed performance, constantly interesting -- and really quite out of his usual line. Signe Hasso is lovely in quite a small role (considering her billing), and Gene Lockhart, Alan Napier, Alma Kruger, Vladimir Sokoloff, and, really, all the supporting cast (including, if I'm not mistaken, an unbilled -- and unaccented! -- Julius Tannen as the President of the Bank of France) are excellent and amusing. The child actress Jo Ann Williams (Kay Pierce of "Mildred Pierce" as well, and the child version of Hedy Lamarr in "The Strange Woman") is excellent, on a par with Margaret O'Brien, even. Superb art direction, too. Unfortunately, two elements, imho, are little short of disastrous. First, and most sadly, perhaps, is that Carole Landis is barely adequate in what is the more important of the two female star roles. Unnatural, stagy -- almost amateurish. (Incidentally, she bears a striking resemblance to Dolores Gray.) Finally, and also sad to say, Hanns Eisler's score, though filled with interesting music, is really not right. (In Jon Halliday's interview with Sirk, Sirk reveals that Eisler was not happy with the score -- and even wanted to re-do it completely, but there was no time.) There's just too much of it, and at times (especially in the scenes at the carousel -- one of which is crucial) rather heavy-handedly makes the wrong points. (To clarify, the carousel is identified with a kind of musical chinoiserie. Fine, a little heavy-handed, but all right. When Vidocq catches up with "the dragon" in a final showdown, it happens on the carousel. What do we hear? "Chinese" music. It doesn't work.) Of course this has been for long one of the Sirk rarities. Pace an earlier commentator, this is by no means Sirk at his low point (I nominate "Slightly French," followed closely by "No Room for the Groom" and "Mystery Submarine"); rather in search of a workable style for America. ("Summer Storm" and "Lured" -- Sirk's other "European" films of the forties -- are both much more successful.)