Monday, 24 September 2018

KNAVE OF HEARTS

Before "Alfie", there was "Monsieur Ripois" (aka "Knave of Hearts"). Gerard Philipe is the French Lothario let loose in London and among the women whose hearts he breaks are Joan Greenwood, Margaret Johnson, Natasha Parry and Valerie Hobson (he marries her). Directed by Rene Clement, this is a very French take on an English comedy and today its principal attraction is in seeing what London looked like in 1954, (it was filmed, superbly, on location by Oswald Morris); that and Philipe who simply exudes Gallic charm even if his character is hardly likeable. It was, of course, doing for Britain, and London in particular, what the French had been doing for Paris for some time and its influence on the British New Wave is obvious.

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