Port of Shadows (1938)

Marcel Carné packs quite a lot into ninety minutes in this superior wartime thriller. It centres around the deserting soldier "Jean" (Jean Gabin) who arrives in Le Harve intending to seek a ship to some far flung neutral port. He needs clothes, though, and money, and food - and he is lucky to meet up with the teenage "Nelly" (Michèle Morgan). She is worldy beyond her years - she has grown up the hard way and is frequently the object of unwanted attention. Fortunately she has the solid "Zabel" (Michel Simon) to keep an eye on her and shield her from the excesses of the local spiv-turned-gangster "Lucien" (Pierre Brasseur). "Jean" is torn. His brain tells him to have nothing to do with this girl - she is trouble. His heart initially pities but soon falls for her and he determines that she, too, ought to find a berth on his freedom voyage. It's a story of love and self preservation this. Even those more unsavoury here are all trying to thrive in an environment forced upon them by war. "Jean" is no coward, he has a courage but it is, initially at any rate, a selfish one. The film illustrates his transformation effectively and there is a gradual evolution of chemistry between Gabin and Morgan that draws us all too willingly into their predicament. Brasseur is perhaps not as menacing - he is a bit too good looking, but the rest of the cast deliver plausibly a story of humanity with all it's hope and vulnerabilities. Will they escape? Well that's no dead cert....