It was probably the director's first really ambitious movie;because of his other movies ("Et Ta Soeur" " A Pied, A Cheval Et En Voiture " ....)this one was tarnished by association;besides ,and mainly ,the subject was too daring to gain 1964 audience .After one week in the theaters ,the film sank without a trace .It's not even mentioned in the recent editions of the "Dictionnaire Des Films " .Maurice Delbez ,in an interview on the booklet included in the DVD edition ,tells how the shooting became a nightmare :the film distributor let him down and the theaters were afraid of the "scandalous" subject :it was 1964 .Columbia agreed to distribute it,not because they liked it ; to be allowed to send their Hollywood productions to the French market ,they had to fill a small quota of French films.
It is easy to see why the movie was a complete failure: although the main hero was a child,surrounded by many young kids,it was not really aimed at the children's market : these pictures of the schoolboys on the streets reminds the viewer of the famous Doisneau photographs ;but it was not another "Ballon Rouge".
Delbaz adapted a Robert Sabatier's novel ,"Alain Et Le N......";he transferred the action which took place in the thirties to the late fifties .At that time,people did not think differently.
A brat,Alain,lives with his mother,an aging woman who owns a cafe- grocery-dairy on Belleville-Menilmontant heights in Paris.His mom 's lover ,a black man, moves in with them .The boy is jealous, and his pals on the street fuel his ordinary racism."I'd rather be a cop's son than a n....'s one " one of them yells.Not only Alain is jealous,but a neighbor,(René Lefèvre) who covets his mother ,hates this black intruder : he talks about the time when he was in the colonial army
Vincent(body-builder Serge Nubret) ,the newcomer, is a strong sensitive young man whose kindness wins Alain over.Even his school mates like to play with this sturdy sportsman who takes them to an imaginary elephant hunt.He introduces Alain to a world he did not know: boxing training,black music and dance shows .
Alain's mother is played by Madeleine Robinson ,one my favorite French actresses ,who gives a restrained performance ,the most intelligent thing to do when you deal with a burning subject:it took a lot of guts to accept such a role in 1964!Both her and her neighbor (Suzanne Gabriello) are women ahead of their time ;the first one challenges the racist taboo; the other refuses to be a submissive housewife,in bed only for a macho hubby's pleasure.Female desire ,in spite of works such as Tennesee Williams' "cat on a hot tin roof"in the fifties was as scandalous as racial treachery.
But what makes this movie endearing is the depiction of the streets with its kids,its Quatre-Chevaux, and the dairy where Madeleine Robinson serves milk with a ladle (a milk you had to boil before use),the posh little boy whose mother does not like those street urchins, the little girl (Christine Simon,who would become a professional actress when she grew up) who wants to kiss Alain and finally achieves her aim,the Gendarme's whistle which fascinates his son...
The title of the film was "Rue Des Cascades " ;the Americans renamed it "Un Gosse De La Bute".Its commercial fiasco ruined the director's career;now the DVD gives the movie a second chance.
