Dietrich Woos Gabin And Speaks French: ‘Martin Roumagnac’ Reviewed
by Rachel Bellwoar
Marlene Dietrich may have been the star of most of her films but she had her share of big name male co-stars – John Wayne (The Spoilers), James Stewart (Destry Rides Again), Gary Cooper (Desire). With George Lacombe‘s Martin Roumagnac, the title probably should’ve been a tipoff that the film was going to be more about its French star, Jean Gabin, than Dietrich. On the bright side, Dietrich did speak French, so she didn’t have to be dubbed, which is a plus.
The film begins, not with Gabin’s Martin but with Dietrich’s Blanche, as her “uncle” (Jean d’Yd) calls her down to help with a customer. Right before that, though, another man is shown walking into the shop asking for Blanche and her “uncle” says she isn’t in. Then when he calls her down to help the film makes a point of showing another man sneaking out of her bedroom… what could it possibly mean?
In any case, once Blanche and her “uncle” are alone together, Blanche expresses a desire to put an end to all these affairs and ultimately decides to go to her first boxing match. It’s there that she meets construction contractor, Martin, and, instead of leaving a glass slipper behind for her working class prince, she ends up dropping a four leaved clover pin that Martin picks up.
The obstacles keeping this couple apart are pretty cut and dry. While Blanche is far from upper crust she prefers expensive things – a lifestyle her more powerful “friends” could help bankroll if she was willing to remain the other woman indefinitely.
The best part about Dietrich’s characterization of Blanche is she’s no handwringer. While she’s definitely torn between her feelings for Martin and the cushy lifestyle she’s been working so hard to attain, she isn’t going to give up her options until she knows what she wants. That means (for a time, at least) she has to two-time Martin, but while another film would make that decision a moral quandary, in Martin Roumagnac we don’t even see her make it. She’s just doing it, without guilt or shame (Lacombe and Pierre Véry wrote the screenplay adaptation of Pierre-René Wolf‘s novel).
The film’s biggest problem, on the other hand, is that it doesn’t make much of an effort to give depth to its “love” story. Martin and Blanche’s relationship seems to be purely physical and, while affairs have been built on less, this isn’t a steamy romance like La Piscine, nor is it a film that goes beyond surface level when it comes to their personal problems. A trip to Paris, for example, is supposed to show how much more comfortable Blanche is in the city compared to Martin, who prefers the country, but while he later says how different she was in Paris, that wasn’t shown onscreen.
While Marcel Mirouze’s music sets viewers up for some Gone With the Wind levels of melodrama, that’s not what’s delivered and while the film doesn’t try to redeem Dietrich’s character, it sure makes a lot of effort to defend Martin, who becomes the primary focus towards the end. This could be considered a spoiler (those who know, know), but if you’re not a fan of how Carmen Jones ends, Martin Roumagnac is Carmen Jones if the film kept going. An agitating watch, but one that that takes some wild turns and is significant for pairing up Gabin with Dietrich.
Martin Roumagnac is available on DVD now from Icarus Films.
