''This Desired Body'' is a 1959 French film. It was also known as ''Ce corps tant désiré'' and ''Way of the Wicked''.

Plot

A young man, Guilaume, loses his job in Paris, and returns home to a seaside town, accompanied by Lina, a prostitute on the run from police. Guillaume's family, the Ferauds, runs a mussel packing factory with Henri Messardier. Henri is attracted to Lina but is unable to handle the fact she was a prostitute; he gets drunk and hits a workmate who insults her, accidentally killing him. He refuses to see Lina in prison and she marries Guillaume. Guillaume's sister Marinette adores Henri but he is unable to forget Lina.

Cast

Daniel Gélin Daniel Yves Alfred Gélin (19 May 1921 – 29 November 2002) was a French film and television actor. Early life Gélin was born in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, the son of Yvonne (née Le Méner) and Alfred Ernest Joseph Gélin. When he was ten, ...

as Guillaume Feraud *

Dany Carrel Yvonne Suzanne Chazelles de Chaxel, better known as Dany Carrel, (born 20 September 1932 or 20 September 1935) is a French actress. She was born in Vietnam - then French Indochina - to French father Aimé Chazelles de Chaxel and his Vietnamese mi ...

as Marinette Feraud *

Belinda Lee Belinda Lee (15 June 193512 March 1961) was an English actress. A profile for the British Film Institute's Screenonline website asserts: "of all the Rank Organisation's starlets, Belinda Lee stands out as the most notorious, yet paradoxically ...

as Lina *

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 Ro ...

as Henri Messardier *

Jane Marken Jane Marken (born Jeanne Berthe Adolphine Crabbe, sometimes credited as Jeanne Marken, 13 January 1895 in Paris 10th arrondissement – 1 December 1976 in Paris 4th arrondissement) was a French actress. She was the first wife of the actor Ju ...

as Mme Féraud *Antoine Balpêtré as M. Messardier *Dominique Blanchar as La fille *Georges Douking as Le commissaire

Production

Filming took place in Paris in September–October 1958. Belinda Lee was still under contract to the Rank Organisation at the time.

Reception

''Variety'' called it "a sort of laborious version of '' And God Created Woman'' sans the snap and jolt of the latter. Result is a fairly plodding vehicle with some exploitation factors on its^theme and sex scenes. Otherwise its literary tone and unshaped characters limit this for stronger chances. abroad... Film has a good production, gloss but actors can not do much with their unclear roles. On-the-spot lensing in a little fishing village helps^." ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' called it "a laborious romantic melodrama along the lines of ''And God Created Woman'' with a mussel-picking milieu but little else in the way of surprise. The actors can do nothing with their unshaped, conventional roles and literary conception. The late Belinda Lee gives an uninhibited but sympathetic performance in a part she was to make her own, the prostitute reformed, and the production has gloss; but all in all this was one of Miss Lee's more plodding vehicles."WAY OF THE WICKED "(Ce Corps tant désiré)" Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 28, Iss. 324, (Jan 1, 1961): 169. ''Filmink'' called it " not a bad little movie, helped by location filming and a frank attitude to sex, and Lee looks terrific."

References

External links

* * * {{Luis Saslavsky 1959 films French drama films 1950s French-language films Films directed by Luis Saslavsky 1950s French films