Man smuggler - the review + the DVD test<

A barely honest edition for a film of which one wonders what it is doing in the "Classic of war" collection.

The argument: World War II. The French Resistance asks a supportive mountaineer nicknamed the Basque to escort Professor Bergson and his family to Spain. If he accepts, the Basque has not yet fully measured the risks and the ferocious determination of a Nazi officer to capture the fugitives.

Our opinion: You need a good dose of the second degree to appreciate Passeur d'hommes: in this case, we will have fun with the inconsistencies of the scenario as well as the staging; we will laugh at violent scenes; we will be fascinated by the playing of Malcom McDowell, who plays around like a psychopathic, sadistic and contemptuous Nazi. But the feeling of waste prevails: employing James Mason or Christopher Lee for such poor roles is definitely unforgivable. For the rest, the film hesitates between the grotesque and the ridiculous: grotesque the sequence in which the Nazi displays underpants with a swastika; ridiculous his resurrection, or the avalanche; as for the dialogues, one wonders how the actors were able to pronounce certain sentences without laughing... © United Artists Corporation Let's not elaborate: the clichés pile up, the only idea of ​​staging is an almost permanent alternating montage; no, really, apart from the natural settings, there is not much to save from this shipwreck. One can console oneself by thinking that Mason could not be bad, that Jack Lee Thomson had a few successes to his credit, including the first version of Nerves on edge. It is very little.

Extras: Patrick Brion reviews the career of the director rather than dwelling on the film - and we understand that (6 mins). The documentary on the main actor, Anthony Quinn, an original is an hour-long hagiography nourished by multiple testimonies, with limited interest and whose image is constantly mediocre. It is not mentioned on the cover, nor is the photo gallery and the trailer which complete the bonus features.

The image: A card at the beginning of the film warns of remaining defects. We can only approve: many sequences present tingling, various parasites and colors without brilliance.

The sound: Two Dolby Digital mono 2.0 tracks, in French or in the original version with subtitles, offer a dull sound, without relief or aeration. The VO remains preferable.