Henri Decoin

Directing

Henri Decoin

Born — Died

1890-03-18 — 1969-07-04

Place of birth

Paris, France

Known for

Directing

Credits

44 titles

Henri Decoin (18 March 1890 – 4 July 1969) was a French film director and screenwriter, who directed more than 50 films between 1933 and 1964. He was also a swimmer who won the national title in 1911 and held the national record in the 500 m freestyle. He competed in the 400 m freestyle at the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the water polo tournament at the 1912 Summer Olympics. During World War I Decoin served as a pilot. After that he worked as a sports journalist for L'Auto, L'Intransigeant and Paris-Soir. In 1926 he published his first book, influenced by Dadaism, the experimental and prize-winning Quinze Combats (Fifteen Rounds), in which a boxing match is seen subjectively by a boxer, and…

Known for

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

Razzia poster
6.7

Henri, the Man from Nantes, comes back to his country after a successful stay in the United States, where he was working for Liski, the drug dealer. With the fame of being a tough guy preceding him, he sets himself to the task of knowing why the French operations were not so profitable - and soon he is master of all links of the organization. He can now get it honed to perfection - or destroy it. Only... the Police are following his every step.

Razzia

1955

Razzia poster
6.7

Henri, the Man from Nantes, comes back to his country after a successful stay in the United States, where he was working for Liski, the drug dealer. With the fame of being a tough guy preceding him, he sets himself to the task of knowing why the French operations were not so profitable - and soon he is master of all links of the organization. He can now get it honed to perfection - or destroy it. Only... the Police are following his every step.

Razzia

1955

Abused Confidence poster
6.3

Lydia (Danielle Darrieux) is a student, poor and orphaned, who pretends to be the daughter of a famous writer.

Abused Confidence

1937

Abused Confidence poster
6.3

Lydia (Danielle Darrieux) is a student, poor and orphaned, who pretends to be the daughter of a famous writer.

Abused Confidence

1937

Portrait of a Murderer poster
5.9

A circus daredevil is the next victim of a danger-seducing woman who tricks him into a potentially deadly stunt after he attempted to kill her.

Portrait of a Murderer

1949

Monelle poster
6.6

Gérard Favier is a famous composer who is deeply in love with his wife Sylvia. The couple meet Monelle, a pretty, talented young pianist and ardent admirer of Gérard Favier. The musician takes the young woman under his wing and launches her to success. But a tabloid reveals an affair between the composer and his protégée.

Monelle

1948

Love and the Frenchwoman poster
4.9

The seven stages in the life of the modern Frenchwomen are disclosed by seven directors in a witty way: 1 - Childhood, 2 - Adolescence, 3 - Virginity, 4 - Marriage, 5 - Adultery, 6 - Divorce, 7 - The Single Woman.

Love and the Frenchwoman

1960

The Affair of the Poisons poster
6.9

Madame de Montespan, the Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XIV, has been in disgrace since the King set eyes on a younger beauty, Marie-Angélique Scorailles. Having had enough of the situation, the rejected mistress decides to visit La Voisin, a woman known as a fortune teller, a doctor, a midwife and who is also said to arrange black masses and sell poisons. Some time later Marie-Angélique, now Duchess of Fontanges, dies mysteriously aged only twenty...

The Affair of the Poisons

1955

The Affair of the Poisons poster
6.9

Madame de Montespan, the Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XIV, has been in disgrace since the King set eyes on a younger beauty, Marie-Angélique Scorailles. Having had enough of the situation, the rejected mistress decides to visit La Voisin, a woman known as a fortune teller, a doctor, a midwife and who is also said to arrange black masses and sell poisons. Some time later Marie-Angélique, now Duchess of Fontanges, dies mysteriously aged only twenty...

The Affair of the Poisons

1955

The Iron Mask poster
5.9

The story of the Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan, and the imprisonment in an iron mask of the identical twin of the King of France, Louis XIV.

The Iron Mask

1962

Where the Truth Lies poster
7.0

A young veterinarian falls in love with a strange woman, a former explorer who might be a Voodoo priestess, after he comes to help her ailing cheetah. She begs him to return to Africa with her, but he doesn’t want to leave his wife. Soon his wife finds herself plagued by a series of bizarre accidents.

Where the Truth Lies

1962

Where the Truth Lies poster
7.0

A young veterinarian falls in love with a strange woman, a former explorer who might be a Voodoo priestess, after he comes to help her ailing cheetah. She begs him to return to Africa with her, but he doesn’t want to leave his wife. Soon his wife finds herself plagued by a series of bizarre accidents.

Where the Truth Lies

1962

The Oil Sharks poster
9.0

The plot revolves around an oil swindle in a South American country.

The Oil Sharks

1933

Casablanca, Nest of Spies poster
4.7

Casablanca 1942. While French Police Chief Maurice Desjardins is busy having careless fun with some loose girls, members of the French Resistance kill a man at the harbor and steal his briefcase full of important documents from the Third Reich. At an apartment building in the distance, Andre Kuhn watches the whole operation through his powerful binoculars. He is posing as a businessman but actually working as a spy for the Germans a fact totally ignored by his live-in girlfriend Teresa Villar, a beautiful Spanish singer who works at El Dorado Night Club. Andre telephones Max von Stauffen, the head of German Intelligence in Casablanca, to inform him of what he has just witnessed. Max tells him to stay put until he arrives in order to get the information personally but, by the time he reaches Andres apartment, he finds him dead with a gun shot on his temple.

Casablanca, Nest of Spies

1963

The Lovers of Toledo poster
4.0

Toledo, 1825. To save her fiancé, an opponent of the regime, the beautiful Inès agrees to marry the chief of police.

The Lovers of Toledo

1953

License to Kill poster
7.0

Didier Formenter, the French scientist, has just put the final touch on an invention that will be able to destroy to destroy any sort of flying apparatus. An international crime gang is very interested in stealing this equipement to sell it to the higher bidder of lawless nations. Menaced, the scientist, who was friends with Nick Carter's father, calls Nick for help. At Nice airport, Nick Carter escapes death, but that night he is unable to stop Formenter's murder. He suspects Bruno, Formenter's adoptive son, and Tonio, the owner of a bar near Formentier's home. Bruno is actually after Formenter's heritage, and for that he tries to kill Catherine, Formentier's granddaughter. Therefore, Nick Carter finds himself against more than a gang, but he will uncover the plots, in time to break every gangster apart.

License to Kill

1964

Between Eleven and Midnight poster
6.9

Between eleven o’clock and midnight one evening, a notorious trafficker Jérôme Vidauban is shot whilst walking in a tunnel in Paris. The case is assigned to Inspector Carrel, who is Vidauban’s perfect double. Using his resemblance to the arch criminal, Carrel manages to infiltrate in Vidauban’s circle of acquaintances and contacts. He becomes embroiled in a bizarre web of intrigue and discovers no shortage of possible murder suspects, all of whom appear to be surprised to see him still alive.

Between Eleven and Midnight

1949

Strangers in the House poster
7.0

Loursat, a lawyer, lives with his daughter Nicole in a sinister and vast bourgeois residence. Abandoned for nearly twenty years by his wife, the brilliant lawyer has sunk into alcoholism and his relationship with his daughter is virtually non-existent. However, one day the corpse of a stranger is discovered in the residence of Loursat. Nicole, who frequents a gang of young people who escape boredom by stealing cars and other objects, is immediately suspected.

Strangers in the House

1942

Love and Desire poster
10.0

A French crew is working on location in Spain. But when they want to film a scene in which Gérardn the male star is supposed to be swimming across a river, the matinée idol proves water-shy and the director decides to double him. The one that replaces him is Antonio, a local fisherman. The latter does the job so well that he is chosen as a stunts man for the whole film. This does not please Lola,his fiancée; all the more as Antonio has fallen in love with Martine, the female star.

Love and Desire

1951

Love and Desire poster
10.0

A French crew is working on location in Spain. But when they want to film a scene in which Gérardn the male star is supposed to be swimming across a river, the matinée idol proves water-shy and the director decides to double him. The one that replaces him is Antonio, a local fisherman. The latter does the job so well that he is chosen as a stunts man for the whole film. This does not please Lola,his fiancée; all the more as Antonio has fallen in love with Martine, the female star.

Love and Desire

1951

The Secrets of the Bed poster
3.8

Four-episode Franco-Italian omnibus film. Four men from different national and cultural background take refuge in a cabin after being sidetracked by bad weather on their way to conference.

The Secrets of the Bed

1954

The Secrets of the Bed poster
3.8

Four-episode Franco-Italian omnibus film. Four men from different national and cultural background take refuge in a cabin after being sidetracked by bad weather on their way to conference.

The Secrets of the Bed

1954

Atomic Agent poster
4.5

Murderous foreign agents are after a scientist who has invented an atomic engine that could change the future of rocketry.

Atomic Agent

1959

The Cat Shows Her Claws poster
6.0

France under the Occupation. Executed for treason against the Resistance, Cora, code-named "La Chatte", was left for dead. Recovered and cared for by the Germans, Dr. von Hollwitz brainwashed her to control her and use her as a counter-espionage. In the spring of 1944, her escape was faked so that she could resume contact with the Resistance. She has to scupper the mission of Charles, an engineer with the SNCF, to blow up a train loaded with V1s intended to power the launch pads set up on the French coast to bomb London. But at the last moment, La Chatte regains her lucidity.

The Cat Shows Her Claws

1960

The Cat Shows Her Claws poster
6.0

France under the Occupation. Executed for treason against the Resistance, Cora, code-named "La Chatte", was left for dead. Recovered and cared for by the Germans, Dr. von Hollwitz brainwashed her to control her and use her as a counter-espionage. In the spring of 1944, her escape was faked so that she could resume contact with the Resistance. She has to scupper the mission of Charles, an engineer with the SNCF, to blow up a train loaded with V1s intended to power the launch pads set up on the French coast to bomb London. But at the last moment, La Chatte regains her lucidity.

The Cat Shows Her Claws

1960

Too Many Lovers poster
6.0

The charming Lulu, a cabaret singer and dancer, has no shortage of admirers. When she decides to get married, she sets her heart on Robert, a young industrialist, but he is already married. Disappointed, she sets out in search of the ideal man.

Too Many Lovers

1957

The Truth About Bebe Donge poster
6.8

François Donge, a rich industrialist and womaniser, meets a girl nicknamed Bébé who he marries. Ten years later, poisoned by his wife and dying in hospital, he recalls his married life and understands how his wife who adored him suffered from his many affairs and indifference.

The Truth About Bebe Donge

1952

The Scheming Women poster
5.6

The renowned theatre manager, Paul Rémy, is accused by his general secretary Andrieux of having killed his partner. On the advice of his wife Mona, Paul goes into hiding in a psychiatric hospital to escape from the police. But Andrieux seduces Mona who then turns against her husband.

The Scheming Women

1954

The Scheming Women poster
5.6

The renowned theatre manager, Paul Rémy, is accused by his general secretary Andrieux of having killed his partner. On the advice of his wife Mona, Paul goes into hiding in a psychiatric hospital to escape from the police. But Andrieux seduces Mona who then turns against her husband.

The Scheming Women

1954

Inside a Girls' Dormitory poster
5.4

In a little town with a renowned college a female student is found after she was hogtied and strangled to death. Inspector Marco is assigned to catch the murderer.

Inside a Girls' Dormitory

1953

Inside a Girls' Dormitory poster
5.4

In a little town with a renowned college a female student is found after she was hogtied and strangled to death. Inspector Marco is assigned to catch the murderer.

Inside a Girls' Dormitory

1953

Dragnet Night poster
6.0

A sailor, who meets a lovely music hall singer during a police raid, falls in love. In a contest at a fair, he defeats a former boxing champ. The ex-champ trains the sailor to become a boxer. After he wins the French championship, the sailor is swayed by easy money and a sultry coquette. The singer goes on a singing tour, and the sailor falls into decadence. He enters the European championship spiritually empty and in bad condition.

Dragnet Night

1931

Port Arthur poster
5.7

Espionage, war and romance in the Far East in 1904: Russian naval officer Boris Ranewsky marries Youki, the sister of a fanatical Japanese officer, but war is imminent.

Port Arthur

1936

Clara de Montargis poster
8.0

Renaud, a young student who is camping alone at the moment, has a dream one night, in which the woman of his dreams appears. When he wakes up the next morning, he cannot believe his eyes: the creature of the dream is there by the side of the road, in the flesh! The woman accepts to drive Renaud to Montargis but it is only after she has dropped him off there that he realizes that what he experienced for her was love at first sight. He then decides not to return to Paris but to try and find the wonderful stranger in Montargis. He discovers that the woman's name is Clara and that she is the member of a drama company.

Clara de Montargis

1951

Clara de Montargis poster
8.0

Renaud, a young student who is camping alone at the moment, has a dream one night, in which the woman of his dreams appears. When he wakes up the next morning, he cannot believe his eyes: the creature of the dream is there by the side of the road, in the flesh! The woman accepts to drive Renaud to Montargis but it is only after she has dropped him off there that he realizes that what he experienced for her was love at first sight. He then decides not to return to Paris but to try and find the wonderful stranger in Montargis. He discovers that the woman's name is Clara and that she is the member of a drama company.

Clara de Montargis

1951

The Cat poster
6.2

During the Occupation, Cora takes the place of her dead husband at the head of a Resistance network. One evening, she sympathizes with Bernard, a Swiss journalist. However, he is actually an undercover German officer who is close to the man ordered to find her using an Identikit picture...

The Cat

1958

Return at Dawn poster
7.2

Married to Karl Ammer, the station master of Thaya, a Hungarian quiet village, Anita is a pretty young peasant who feels deeply bored. She dreams of another life while watching the daily express trains to Budapest. An incident will force her to leave her province: she has to go to Budapest to attend the funeral of an aunt and receive a share of the inheritance. After completing the formalities, Anita misses the train to go back home and then she finds herself alone in the capital.

Return at Dawn

1938

Return at Dawn poster
7.2

Married to Karl Ammer, the station master of Thaya, a Hungarian quiet village, Anita is a pretty young peasant who feels deeply bored. She dreams of another life while watching the daily express trains to Budapest. An incident will force her to leave her province: she has to go to Budapest to attend the funeral of an aunt and receive a share of the inheritance. After completing the formalities, Anita misses the train to go back home and then she finds herself alone in the capital.

Return at Dawn

1938

I Will Love You Always poster
7.0

Alternate French version of the Italian film T'Amero Sempre: Coming to Paris after an unhappy youth, a lonely woman has a love affair but when she is pregnant the man abandons her and she finds work in a beauty salon. Will she be able to find a new happiness?

I Will Love You Always

1933

Port Arthur poster
8.5

French-language version of Port Arthur (1936), a German language film (q.v.) co-produced by German, French and Czechoslovakian film interests. About espionage, action and romance in the Russo-Japanese War, as the conflict threatens Russian naval officer Boris Ranewsky and his Japanese wife Youki.

Port Arthur

1936