''La môme vert-de-gris'' ( French for "The Greyish-Green Dame"), released in the USA as ''Poison Ivy'', is a 1953 French crime film. It was French director

Bernard Borderie Bernard Borderie (10 June 1924 in Paris – 28 May 1978 in Paris) was a French film director and screenwriter. His father, Raymond Borderie, was one of the producers of ''Les Enfants du Paradis'' (''Children of Paradise'', 1945). Selected filmo ...

's first film, as well as American-born French actor

Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine (born Edward Israël Constantinowsky; October 29, 1917 – February 25, 1993) was an American singer, actor and entertainer who spent most of his career in France. He became well-known to film audiences for his portrayal of se ...

's. The screenplay is based the on the 1937

Lemmy Caution Lemmy Caution is a fictional character created by British writer Peter Cheyney (1896–1951). Caution was first portrayed as a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, and in later stories as a private detective. Cheyney's first book with the ...

thriller ''Poison Ivy'' by

Peter Cheyney Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse-Cheyney (22 February 1896 – 26 June 1951) was a British crime fiction writer who flourished between 1936 and 1951. Cheyney is perhaps best known for his short stories and novels about agent/detective Lemmy C ...

, which had been in 1945 the first title published in

Marcel Duhamel Marcel Duhamel (16 July 1900 in Paris – 6 March 1977 in Saint-Laurent-du-Var) was a French actor and screenwriter, founder of the Série noire publishing imprint. He played The Foreman in Jean Renoir's 1936 ''The Crime of Monsieur Lange''. ...

's ''

Série noire ''Série noire'' is a French publishing imprint, founded in 1945 by Marcel Duhamel. It has released a collection of crime fiction of the hardboiled detective thrillers variety published by Gallimard. Anglo-American literature forms the bulk o ...

''. The story involves FBI agent Caution investigating gold smuggling activity in Casablanca.

Crew

* Director:

* Screenplay: Bernard Borderie and Jacques Berland * Assistant director: André Smagghe * Cinematography: Jacques Lemare * Music: Guy Lafarge

Cast

- Lemmy Caution *

Dominique Wilms Dominique Wilms (born 8 June 1930) is a Belgian film actress. Life and career Married to actor Jean Gaven, she was widowed by him in 2014.Lentz IIII, Harris. Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2014', p. 126. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarlan ...

- Carlotta de la Rue * Howard Vernon - Rudy Saltierra *

Darío Moreno David Arugete (3 April 1921 – 1 December 1968), commonly known under his stage name Darío Moreno, was a Turkish-Jewish polyglot singer, an accomplished composer, lyricist, and guitarist. He attained fame and made a remarkable career centred ...

- Joe Madrigal *

Maurice Ronet Maurice Ronet (13 April 1927 – 14 March 1983) was a French film actor, director, and writer. Early life Maurice Ronet was born Maurice Julien Marie Robinet in Nice, Alpes Maritimes. He was the only child of professional stage actors Émile Rob ...

- Mickey *

Nicolas Vogel Nicolas Vogel (born in Paris, France, May 27, 1925 - died in Paris September 17, 2006) was an actor and comedian who was featured in numerous films and television shows in the 1960s and 1970s, including ''The Man from Chicago'' (1963), '' Le Gitan' ...

- Kerts *

Philippe Hersent Philippe Hersent (26 July 1912 – 30 December 1982) was a French actor. He appeared in more than eighty films from 1930 to 1978. Filmography References External links * 1912 births 1982 deaths French male film actors {{Franc ...

- Le commissaire *

Jess Hahn Jesse Beryle Hahn (October 29, 1921June 29, 1998) was an American-French character actor who mostly starred in French films. Biography After serving with the Marines in the Second World War, he moved to France in 1949 and took French citizen ...

- Le marin-geolier *

Gaston Modot Gaston Modot (31 December 1887 – 20 February 1970) was a French actor. For more than 50 years he performed for the cinema working with a number of great French directors. Biography Modot lived in Montmartre at the beginning of the 20th cen ...

- L'inspecteur #1 *

Paul Azaïs Paul François Robert Azaïs (6 May 1902 – 17 November 1974) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1929 and 1966. Selected filmography * '' The Three Masks'' (1929) - Le fils Vescotelli * ''Le défenseur'' ( ...

- Le patron du bistrot

Synopsis

Set in Casablanca, it recycles aspects of the atmospheric noirish French films of the 1930s together with pulp-fiction American detective films of the post-war period. Considered either "tongue-in-cheek" or "doddery", the film "utilizes all the rules of the genre, albeit without convictions: chases, fistfights, nightclubs, unusual settings, knowing winks at the public". It was a commercial success in France (3,846,158 French entries in 1953) and was followed by 7 other Lemmy Caution films until 1967, not counting Jean-Luc Godard's "incomprehensible" '' Alphaville, a strange adventure of Lemmy Caution'', casting Constantine and Vernon. Constantine's enduring success started with this. This film was considered "emblematic of French postwar attitudes towards the United States: a fascination for U.S. culture tempered by fear of U.S. dominance".

References

External links

''La môme vert-de-gris''
unifrance.org * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mome vert-de-gris, La 1953 films Films directed by Bernard Borderie Films set in Morocco Films based on British novels French crime films 1953 crime films French black-and-white films 1950s French-language films 1950s French films