LE CORBEAU (THE RAVEN) (1943) B/W 92m dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot

w/Pierre Fresnay, Pierre Larquey, Ginette Leclerc, Héléna Manson, Micheline Francey, Noel Roquevert, Bernard Lancret, Balpétré, Brochard

From Georges Sadoul's Dictionary of Films: "In a small French town, poison-pen letters are sent to the inhabitants and provoke tensions and suicides. Suspected in turn are a doctor (Fresnay), a crippled girl with loose morals (Leclerc), and a sick woman (Manson). ...

"Based on a prewar true story (the poison-pen letters of Tulle), Le Corbeau is basically an ingeniously suspenseful thriller with the audience being led to believe that each character in turn is the guilty one on the basis of the psychological motivation.

"The film was produced by the German company, Continental, which stressed the film's setting in their publicity: 'A typical small French town.' This provoked a violent denunciation of the film in the clandestine Les Lettres Francaises by George Adam and Pierre Blanchar. Le Corbeau was banned in France for two years after the Liberation and its director suspended for six months.

"It is well directed and acted and features Ginette Leclerc's best role. A particularly effective scene has the old man saying, as his and the doctor's faces alternate in shadow and light, 'You think that goodness is light and darkness is evil. But where is the darkness? Where the light?'"