Hôtel du Nord (1938) One of the Original French Film Noir

Directed by Marcel Carné (Le quai des brumes, Le Jour Se Leve, Trois chambres à Manhattan). 

Written by  Henri Jeanson and Jean Aurenche and based on Eugène Dabit's novel. Cinematography was by Louis Née and Armand Thirard, and Music was by Maurice Jaubert. 

The film stars Annabella as Renée (13 Rue Madeleine) Pierre's fiancée,  Jean-Pierre Aumont (Napoleon) as Pierre, Renée's fiancé, Louis Jouvet (Les bas-fonds, Quai des Orfèvres, Entre onze heures et minuit) as Edmond, protector of Raymonde. Arletty (Le jour se lève)) as Raymonde, a prostitute. 

Annabella as Renée 

Louis Jouvet as Edmond

Jean-Pierre Aumont as Pierre

With André Brunot as Émile Lecouvreur, owner of the hotel and husband of Louise, Jane Marken as Louise Lecouvreur owner of the hotel and wife of Émile, Bernard Blier (Le jour se lève, L'assassinat du Père Noël, Quai des Orfèvres, Dédée d'Anvers, Série noire) as Prosper Trimaux, lock keeper and blood donor,  Paulette Dubost as Ginette Trimaux, Prosper's wife Andrex as Kenel, a regular at the hotel. 

Story

This is a great ensemble Noir centered around the guests who live in a semi-seedy residence hotel called the Hôtel du Nord. sitting by a lock on the Canal Saint-Martin called the Hôtel du Nord. 

Canal Saint-Martin 

Canal Boat

Canal Saint-Martin

As the credits play we get some real canal and lock operations footage. We see the steep arched pedestrian overpass that can be climbed over the waterway when the swing bridge is open, the lock tender buildings along with the small linear parks on each side of the lock. Once the establishing shots are completed we switch to the Billancourt Studios where they constructed a duplicate hotel and a canal on land supposedly owned by a cemetery. However there's no cemetery next to the studios. So maybe its the nearby Boulogne-Billancourt studios instead, who knows? 

We watch a young couple Renée and Pierre stepping down the steps of the pedestrian canal bridge, and walking arm in arm along the tow path to a bench seat where they sit. We assume they are young lovers.

We cut to the interior of the ground floor dinning room. There's a first communion party with most of the hotel guests in attendance. Into this scenes walk our two lovers Renée and Pierre asking for a room for the night.

Absent from the fest are residents Raymonde, a prostitute and Edmond, her friend with benefits/. 

Raymonde and Edmond are in their room just finishing up. Edmund has been taking "art nude" photos of Raymonde. He plans on trying to sell them to tourists, lol. There's a knock on the door.

They are interrupted by one of the first communion kids who brings them a piece of cake from the party, Raymonde thanks her and tells her that she has to go to work and shoos her out the door. 

Raymonde then takes off her robe and slips on her dress and heads out into to the hall and down to the party before she heads out to troll the night to try and turn a few tricks. 

Edmund begins to prepare to develop his film. 

We cut to watch as Renée and Pierre are shown to their room, right next door to Raymonde and Edmonds flop. 

At this point during their conversation we find out that they are not newly weds but lovers with a suicide pact. They both lay upon the bed to do the deed.

We jump back To Edmond working under a plate changing lamp, in the sink with a tray of developing fluid. he hears a loud bang next door and goes out to investigate. 

He bangs on the door yelling Open! We cut to Pierre leaning over the body of Renée. Ahe is laying with he head off the edge of the bed.

Edmund finally puts his shoulder to it and forces the lock open. He finds Pierre standing out on a small balcony beyond the window. 

He's trapped. But Edmund tells him to scram. He slowly edges past Edmond and runs out into the hall and down the stairway. Edmond picks Renée up gently and lays her back down upon the bed.

We see Pierre go across the street from the hotel to the small canal park fence and drop the gun into the bushes, and take off into the darkness.

When the police come they do their investigation, remove the body, question the residents. As Renée is loaded into the ambulance Prosper Trimaux the hotel's resident lock keeper, and professional blood donor volunteers to accompany the ambulance if he's needed.

Edmund is now down in the restaurant of the hotel playing pinball. The inspector questions him about what happened. 

Edmond tells him he was developing photos when he heard the shot. He forced the door found Renée and came down and phoned the police. 

When the inspector asks did he find a gun, he replies I'm not in charge of the case. The inspector asks Edmund for his papers. They are in order. 

All while the last part of that is going on, Raymonde is at the bar having a glass of wine and a snack, shouting out remarks. Edmund slides up next to her at the bar, and tells her she is going to get a sore throat.i.e., she's talking too much. 

The Inspector that was questioning Edmund slides over to the bar and asks now to see Raymonde's papers. Hers are not in order and the inspector has Raymonde arrested.

Edmund disappears as Raymonde is walked out and into the back seat of a police car, and seated between two cops as she's driven down to headquarters.  

We cut back to Pierre. he's on a street that's partially trenched and torn up for a sewer project. There's a barricade with kerosene lamps. 

A streetwalker standing in a doorway hooks Pierres arm as he walks past her. She tries to put the make on him. He ignores her, and where the building ends he is now out of the sleazy neighborhood, and on a overpass where the street runs over a rail yard bridge. 

Part of the way across he stops, climbs over the railing, and attempts to commit suicide by jumping in front of an approaching train. He gets lost in a cloud of steam and a passing horse drawn wagon obscures our view. But we see that he chickened out at the last moment. 

He gets lost in a cloud of steam and a passing horse drawn wagon obscures our view. However once the steam clears we see that he chickened out at the last moment.

We cut to a hospital and, surprise, surprise, Renée is still alive. Pierre is brought in and the police tell her that he admitted to trying to kill her. 

The inspector in charge begins to ask questions.

We find out she was in an orphanage until age 21, When she was released she got a job and then met Pierre a draughtsman. They became lovers. She quit her job and they got by with Renée's posing for various artists. Then money ran out and they made a suicide pact.

Pierre exclaims that she's lying and that it was he who pulled the trigger. Renée calls him an infant. As the police are about to take Pierre away the inspector asks if he wants to say anything to Renée's, he shakes his head no, and they take him away. 

Pierre exclaims that she's lying and that it was he who pulled the trigger. Renée calls him an infant. As the police are about to take Pierre away the inspector asks if he wants to say anything to Renée's, he shakes his head no, and they take him away. 

4 days later Edmond is walking over the canal pedestrian arch and spots a young boy playing below on the towpath with Pierre's discarded gun. 

He takes it away and gives the boy money telling him that he's paying him for it. Edmond slips the small automatic in he pocket and as he heads across the street towards the hotel, and the cook from the hotel asks Edmond if he would kill a chicken for her. 

Edmond goes off to do some culinary duties.  Raymonde shows up in a taxi. She shoots the breeze with a couple of the hotel regulars and then heads up to their room. 

She tells Edmond that 4 day feel like eight, and then asks about the shooting, Edmund recounts the events and tells her about Pierre giving himself up the next day. 

While talking Raymonde pulls out a large tin tub from under the bed, and lights a burned to heat up water. Edmond pulls out the small automatic and tosses it in a draw telling Raymonde that it is a just a souvenir.

Raymonde tells Edmond that while in detention she met another prostitute who told her that Nazarede and Marcel have served their five years and are out, and they are looking for Edmond, and he means business. 

Edmund tells her Paris is small but France is big. When she asks what he means he tells her to pack her bags we are going to the Riviera. 

It all goes Noirsville when Renée walks back into the Hôtel du Nord, to get her things, Louise Lecouvreur, wife of owner of the hotel Emile Lecouvreur, feeling sorry for her, offers her a room and a job. 

Renée's notoriety attracts customers to the bar & restaurant to get a look of her for themselves. One of them attracted lives closer to home, Edmond.

Noirsville

Bernard Blier as Prosper Trimaux

I'm getting to like Louis Jouvet, a lot.  I've seen him playing two cops and now a double crossing crook who ends up being the wrong man in a Noir ending. I'd like to find more of his Noir. Annabella is new to me and was convincing. An engaging Noir with an ensemble cast delivers the goods. 8/10