10 rue Frédérick

I found this on YouTube in perfectly crisp black and white 1950's Cinemascope and was gripped by it from beginning to end. Philip Dunne was in my opinion a variable director, but he directed this very well and my other film of his I especially like is ' Hilda Crane ' with Jean Simmons at her best along with Guy Madison who was never better. I mention this because all of the actors in this film are on top form and clearly Dunne knew how to get the best out of actors, which is not that usual as it should be. Gary Cooper is excellent as a man abused in subtle ways and not so subtle ways by others. Geraldine FitzGerald as his aspiring wife is cruel to him beyond belief, but in the eyes of society she has her hands clean. Their marriage due to political disaster for Cooper collapses into marital infidelity. No spoilers but to say that their two children equally suffer, and Diane Varsi ( what a great actor ) as the daughter suffers appallingly. To sum up this is a film about how people can inflict pain and torture and because it is so quietly done and without bloodshed no one intervenes or cares to. Quiet cruelty is simply part of the so-called normal social fabric. A film with depth and should be more widely known than it is. Perhaps it is too saddening in its content to be universally liked, which says a lot about us as human beings.