Portrait D'un Assassin (1949)

A carnival daredevil (Pierre Brasseur, CHILDREN OF PARADISE) is unhappy with his wife (Arletty) but an attempt to kill her is botched when he accidentally shoots the wrong woman (Maria Montez). The woman survives and turns out to be a rich bitch with a kinky taste for men who take dangerous risks and she sets her claws on the man who accidentally shot her. But she may have met her match! This little known film, directed by Bernard-Roland, is an interesting almost noir like exercise in how sordid love can be, a force for evil as well as good. Love drives Brasseur and Montez to do horrible things while Arletty and Eric von Stroheim (as Montez' paralyzed ex-lover) suffer nobly and sacrifice themselves on love's altar. It's interesting to see Montez outside her Technicolor Universal epics in a contemporary setting in a part that requires more of her than just looking exotic. She'd left Hollywood by this time and moved to Europe in hope of better roles and she got one here. But the acting honors belong to Arletty who's touching yet one can see why Brasseur could feel stifled in their marriage. While not an undiscovered gem by any means, the film's deserves (certainly with that cast) a better reputation and a larger audience (it has only 83 votes on the IMDb). With Marcel Dalio, Jules Berry and Marcel Dieudonne.