''The Damned'' (french: Les Maudits) is a 1947 French

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by René Clément. It was entered into the

1947 Cannes Film Festival The 2nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 12 to 25 September 1947. The new building that was meant to host the festival, the Palais du Festival, was still not ready, and the festival was held amid many technical and financial problems. In 1947, t ...

. The film is notable for its depiction of the interior of a wartime submarine and for its tracking shots through the length of the U-boat.

Plot

As Germany is in the throes of losing World War II, a number of wealthy Nazis and some French sympathizers head for South America in a German submarine leaving from Oslo. The film's narrator is a French doctor ( Henri Vidal) who has been kidnapped to tend a sick woman, Hilde Garosi (

Florence Marly Florence Marly (2 June 1919 – 9 November 1978) was a Czech-born French film actress. During World War II, Marly moved to neutral Argentina with her Jewish husband, film director Pierre Chenal, where she appeared in several films. She also acted ...

), the wife of one man and the lover of another, both aboard. The doctor realizes he will be murdered at any point once the woman has recovered so he tries various stratagems to escape. All fail. The mission slowly disintegrates as the war ends and its reasons for being dissipate, with some passengers either trying to escape or committing suicide. Forster ( Jo Dest) tries to continue the mission even after Berlin has fallen and orders have gone out for all U-boats to surrender at the nearest port. Part of the crew finally mutinies against the insane ones still fighting the war. The doctor ends up alone on the Nazi sub for days writing his memoirs until an American ship rescues him and finally sinks his infamous abode at sea.

Cast

* Marcel Dalio as Larga (as Dalio) * Henri Vidal as Docteur Guilbert *

as Hilde Garosi *

Fosco Giachetti Fosco Giachetti (28 March 1900, in Sesto Fiorentino – 22 December 1974, in Rome) was an Italian actor. Fosco Giachetti was the protagonist of ''Lo squadrone bianco'' (1936), directed by Augusto Genina. He became the leading man in Fascist ...

as Garosi * Paul Bernard as Couturier * Jo Dest as Forster (as Jodest) *

Michel Auclair Michel Auclair (born Vladimir Vujović, sr-cyr, Владимир Вујовић; 14 September 1922 – 7 January 1988) was an actor of Serbian and French ancestry, known best for his roles in French cinema. Auclair was born to a Serbian father ...

as Willy Morus * as Ingrid Ericksen * Andreas von Halberstadt (as A. Von Halberstadt) *

Lucien Hector Lucien is a male given name. It is the French form of Luciano or Latin ''Lucianus'', patronymic of Lucius. Lucien, Saint Lucien, or Saint-Lucien may also refer to: People Given name * Lucien of Beauvais, Christian saint *Lucien, a band member ...

as Ericksen * Jean Lozach (as Lozach) * Karl Münch (as Karl Munch)

Restoration

In 2013, the Cohen Film Collection released ''The Damned'' on Blu-ray and DVD in the US, using a restoration carried out by the French distributor, Gaumont.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Damned, The 1947 films 1947 drama films 1940s French-language films 1940s German-language films French black-and-white films French drama films Films directed by René Clément World War II submarine films Palme d'Or winners 1940s French films