Out In The Belle Epoque Crime Noir Night- Simone Signoret’s "Casque D'Or"

Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry for Simone Signoret’s Casque D’Or.

DVD Review

Casque D’Or, starring Simone Signoret, Criterion Collection, 1952

Crime doesn’t pay in the 2000s and it didn’t pay in the Belle Epoque. Except in the film under review, Casque D’Or, that crime business gets short shrift to the star-crossed love story that drives the plot here. There are criminals aplenty here but the one that counts is not the worst of the lot. Here’s the deal though- this is nothing but a classic boy meets girl story in the very old time criminal underground. Golden Girl (played by a young Simone Signoret, an icon of 1950s French cinema) meets ex-con Georges. But the problem is that she is up and coming criminal Roland’s girl. Forget Roland though once Georges hit town and literally dancing her off her feet. But Roland and his confederates do not easily forget. Roland gets killed by a third party, Georges takes the rap for it, escapes, and kills the guy behind the scenes (Felix)who has been manipulating things like crazy because he too is crazy about golden girl. Georges offs Felix and for his efforts gets his head cut off, French justice style. Love faced tough, tough times back in those Belle Époque (beautiful time) days although not as tough as the slaughter of World War I yet to come but tough. Ya, crime doesn’t pay but isn’t there some kind of rule that love conquers all, at least in the cinema.