''La môme vert-de-gris'' (

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

for "The Greyish-Green Dame"), released in the USA as ''Poison Ivy'', is a 1953 French

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

. 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 ''Children of Paradise, Les Enfants du Paradis'' (''Children of Paradise'', 194 ...

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

Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine (born Israel Constantine; October 29, 1913 – 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 secret agent L ...

's. The screenplay is based 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. History Cheyney's first book ...

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 – 6 March 1977) 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''. In 1953 he was credited as screenp ...

'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 of ...

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

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

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: McFarland ...

- Carlotta de la Rue *

Howard Vernon Mario Walter Lippert (15 July 1908 – 25 July 1996), better known by his stage name Howard Vernon, was a Swiss actor and photographer. He had an extensive career in French cinema which spanned nearly 200 productions over 55 years, betwee ...

- 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 centr ...

- 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 ...

- 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 {{France ...

- 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 citi ...

- 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 ...

- Instructor #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'' ( ...

- bistrot customer *

Don Ziegler Don Ziegler was an American film actor, living in Paris''The Saturday Evening Post'', June 4, 1960, p. 36. and active in French cinema in the 1950s and early 1960s, usually playing foreigners. Selected Filmography * ''Holiday for Henrietta'' ...

- FBI director

Synopsis

Set in

, 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 Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...

'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 Casablanca Films based on British novels French crime films 1953 crime films French black-and-white films 1950s French-language films 1950s French films French-language crime films