Icarus Films had some stunning film restoration news this past week. This would be none other than French director Georges Lacombe’s 1946 film adaptation of Pierre-René Wolf’s pre-war novel (1935), Martin Roumagnac.
Noted for the teaming of real-life lovers, Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich, in their only screen appearance together, Martin Roumagnac is a new 2K film restoration that will be available for fans to enjoy on DVD is this coming Apr. 18.
Pre-war sensibilities; post-war realities and before the French New Wave arrived … Lacombe as a realist, with two illustrious film legends to tell his tragic tale. Perfection!
The film opened in France theatrically during the Christmas holiday of 1946, but did not reach these shores — retitled as The Room Upstairs — until the Labor Day weekend of 1948. Earlier that same summer (1948), Dietrich lit up the screen in Billy Wilder’s A Foreign Affair … a wonderful summer for Dietrich fans to be sure!
Jean Gabin (Pépé le Moko, The Grand Illusion, Port of Shadows) plays the title character, Martin Roumagnac, a construction contractor living in rural France with his sister (played by Margo Lion), who is hard at work on building a villa of his own.
Into this pristine place comes the black widow, Blanche Ferrand (Dietrich), with her “uncle” (Jean d'Yd) in tow. The only reason she is there is that she “inherited” a local business from her recently deceased husband.
Once in town, she spots her next target, Laubry (Marcel Herrand), she needs for his already dying wife to, well, die. In the meantime, Blanche becomes the obsession of the ineffectual local teacher (played by Daniel Gélin) — there will be others — and by chance meets Martin and they become miss-matched lovers — he is nothing more than an amusement while she waits patiently for Laubry’s wife to die.
This volatile mix will lead to murder, an elaborate set of lies to cover up the crime and a tragic end to Martin. All fully restored! Glorious!!
Martin Roumagnac on DVD from Icarus Films on Apr. 18. Presented in French with English subtitles.
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