The Eternal Husband

In Shakespeare's late play 'The Winter's Tale', the character of Leontes observes that should every husband despair of being a cuckold then 'the tenth of mankind would hang themseves.' In this adaptation of Dostoevsky's novella 'The Eternal Husband', the cuckolded Nicolas, having discovered that his late wife had deceived him with a roué named Michel who fathered the daughter he has brought up as his own, sets about wreaking revenge through psychologically perverse means.

This bleak depiction of hatred and of human nature at its ugliest is stylishly directed by Pierre Billon, aided by the gloomy sets of Georges Wakhévitch, the shadowy images by cinematographer Nicolas Toporkoff and Maurice Thiriet's brooding score.

In what was fated to be his final role the magnificent Raimu completes his gallery of unforgettable character studies with his troubling performance as the utterly despicable Nicolas. He had recently been admitted to the Comédie-Francaise and it is only fitting that he is supported here by Aimée Clariond, Louis Seigner and Gisele Casadesus all three of whom were members of that hallowed institution.

Little Lucy Valnor is deeply touching as Nicolas' cruelly treated daughter.

After a dramatically effective final scene with the fragile dandy Michel of Clariond, Raimu's hunched figure walking away into the evening mist is the screen's farewell to one that Orson Welles called 'the greatest actor of them all.'