The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Georges de la Fourchadier. This film is considered iconic in many ways - this is Renoir's first full-length sound film and in general one of the first sound films in French cinema, now it is considered one of the masterpieces of Renoir and French cinema, at the same time it was not met by everyone positively, and the more conservative part of critics generally protested against its release, so that commercially it was not successful. The plot is not very intricate, the main character Maurice Legrand (Michel Simon) is not very young (according to then concepts, somewhere in the film his age is mentioned - 42 years), a quiet employee in a wholesale lingerie store, a hen-heeled man, with whom his wife treats in a completely boorish way, constantly opposing him to her first husband, who allegedly died heroically on PMV, nevertheless he has some advantages, he is a good artist, however, his wife and this affects her nerves and she constantly stresses that this is her house. One day after a party at work, he accidentally encounters a scandalous couple on the street, a man slaps a young woman, she falls, Maurice rushes to her help, but the woman does not imbue any sympathy for the defender, but, on the contrary, pities her companion. Maurice takes a couple by taxi, while clearly flared up to the girl with a feeling, he mistook her for a defenseless modest girl, Lula (Jani Marez) was actually a prostitute, and her companion Dede (George Flaman) was her pimp, with whom she was also in love. Here begins the story of love, fall and death of some of the main characters, while Maurice is far from harmless character - and intrigue in relation to his wife and her ex-husband, who did not die, concocts, and Lula in a fit of desperation will kill, and quietly wash away from the crime scene, without confessing, and then allowing to execute Deda, who, although he was a notorious bastard, but Lulu did not kill. Maurice ends up with a clown, watching his paintings sell under a false name for a lot of money.
It may have been a breakthrough film for its time, but frankly, I’ve now watched it with some effort, although I’ve made a discount on the time of the film’s creation, yet its film language is already somewhat outdated, even compared to other old films, which, as you may have noticed, I watch a lot. Some say that the second adaptation of the same work, directed by Fritz Lang under the title “Scarlet Street” (Scarlet Street, 1945), was more interesting, with Lang inspired by the film Renoir, whom he greatly appreciated.