
Acting
René Blancard
Born — Died
1897-03-12 — 1965-11-06
Place of birth
Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Known for
Acting
Credits
61 titles
Known for
7.3When a string of jewel robberies hits the French Riviera, suspicion falls on retired thief John “The Cat” Robie. To clear his name, he sets out to trap the copycat himself—entangling a wealthy widow and her beguiling daughter in a seductive game of pursuit, deception, and desire.
To Catch a Thief
1955
8.6Obscure French version of the original Godzilla. The film combines elements of the original Toho version and the American King of the Monsters! in a unique assemblage exclusive to the Francophone market. Released by Les Films du Verseau.
Godzilla, the Monster of the Pacific Ocean
1957
3.5A group of bandits conspire to kidnap a scientist who can help them manufacture diamonds.Unbeknownst to them , the FBI is already on their case.
Diamond Machine
1955
7.5Three stories about pleasure. The first one is about a man hiding his age behind a mask to keep going to balls and fancying women - pleasure and youth. Then comes the long tale of Madame Tellier taking her girls (whores) to the country for attending her niece's communion - pleasure and purity. And lastly, Jean the painter falls in love with his model - pleasure and death.
Le Plaisir
1952
7.6As Dominique Marceau is being tried for the murder of Gilbert Tellier, accounts by different witnesses paint a picture of the kind of relationship the two used to share.
The Truth
1960
6.7Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
We Are All Murderers
1952
Film credits
1960s · 3 titles
7.6As Dominique Marceau is being tried for the murder of Gilbert Tellier, accounts by different witnesses paint a picture of the kind of relationship the two used to share.
The Truth
1960
7.7A policeman and a serial killer play cat and mouse in an isolated mountain village in Nineteenth century France. The second film directed by the man who played the admirable lead role in Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped is a stylized and intense adaptation of a novel by Jean Giono. This police investigation in a 19th century village combines visual beauty with the rigor of the mise-en-scène—the vertigo of the criminal motivations indivisible from the refined graphics of the images.
A King Without Distraction
1963
7.0The daughter of a foreign diplomat in Paris is courted by two men. One of them entrusts her with a harmless commission for Poland, as she has a diplomatic passport. But it's a trap, and the girl is forced to work for Eastern spies.
Operation Diplomatic Passport
1965
1950s · 27 titles
7.3When a string of jewel robberies hits the French Riviera, suspicion falls on retired thief John “The Cat” Robie. To clear his name, he sets out to trap the copycat himself—entangling a wealthy widow and her beguiling daughter in a seductive game of pursuit, deception, and desire.
To Catch a Thief
1955
8.6Obscure French version of the original Godzilla. The film combines elements of the original Toho version and the American King of the Monsters! in a unique assemblage exclusive to the Francophone market. Released by Les Films du Verseau.
Godzilla, the Monster of the Pacific Ocean
1957
3.5A group of bandits conspire to kidnap a scientist who can help them manufacture diamonds.Unbeknownst to them , the FBI is already on their case.
Diamond Machine
1955
7.5Three stories about pleasure. The first one is about a man hiding his age behind a mask to keep going to balls and fancying women - pleasure and youth. Then comes the long tale of Madame Tellier taking her girls (whores) to the country for attending her niece's communion - pleasure and purity. And lastly, Jean the painter falls in love with his model - pleasure and death.
Le Plaisir
1952
6.7Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
We Are All Murderers
1952
5.7Henri Chatelard is well into his forties, owns a restaurant and a cinema in the city, and appreciates women. When he meets Marie, an 18-ish strong-head who just lost her father in a small fishing village, it is not clear who is the hunter and who is the prey.
Marie of the Port
1950
5.0Bob recruits Jacques, a desperate blacksmith, to "recover" smuggled diamonds from de Belar. The heist goes badly wrong. The crooks kill each other for the money, but the diamonds are gone and Jacques returns to his life as an honest man.
The Coin
1959
7.1Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Catherine de Médicis, celebrates her wedding with Henri de Navarre. Officially, it's a rapprochement between the League and the Huguenots. In fact, it was an opportunity to bring all the Huguenots to Paris and kill them all at once. King Charles IX fails in his attempt on Coligny's life. Queen Margot tries to save her husband from the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre by preventing the annulment of his marriage, forcing Henri to share her bed. Two knights from opposing camps are wounded and, saved în extremis, are hidden together by the queen and her cousin. Margot falls in love with one of them, but has to run to warn her husband of a new attack...
Queen Margot
1954
7.0In Marseille, a customs inspector falls in love with a young woman involved in dubious traffic.
Oriental Port
1950
5.9Historical film directed and written by Sacha Guitry follows the the history of Paris from its founding through the significant events in the city's history.
If Paris Were Told to Us
1956
7.5Fates of multiple otherwise disconnected characters intertwine miraculously under the sky of Paris. And it all happens in one day.
Under the Paris Sky
1951
6.2While celebrating his birthday, police inspector Basquier recalls two of his most celebrated cases. The first involves duplicitous moneylender Olga. The second concerns the brutal broad daylight murder of innocent young Yvonne.
Follow That Man
1953
10.0Dreaming of heroic deeds, a young missionary soon becomes disillusioned.
A Missionary
1955
6.0Michèle, an employee at the airport, is in love with American pilot Eddie Miller who regularly flies the route from New York to Paris, but problems arise when he is transferred to the Tokyo route. Meanwhile Michèle's uncle Albert who works in the freight department sets out to tackle a drug trafficking outfit.
Intermediate Landing in Paris
1955
2.0A girl surviving on public welfare, fall into a life of prostitution.
Diary of a Bad Girl
1956
7.0One of the first victories against the Nazis in World War II is when Parisians help allied forces drive the enemy out of occupied French Algeria.
The Big Meeting
1950
7.0The wealthy industrialist Alain de Narbois has disappeared. Michel Dunant, an idle man who passed by and who looks exactly like the deceased, is taken for Alain by a young woman and her servant. He jumps at the chance but quickly realizes that, in this hushed little world, masters and servants play comedy and know very well that he is only a double of Alain. In fact, the industrialist was assassinated.
No Pity for Women
1950
6.3A small town in Spain, October 1955. Isabel, a 35-year-old dreamer who feels like a failure because she is not married yet, becomes the new target of a group of soulless pranksters.
Main Street
1956
7.0The brother of Jeanne Masson, a young nightclub singer, has been murdered by Brasier, a criminal who pretends to be a respectable man. Jeanne has resolved to avenge her brother but she just cannot take action herself. The way she finds is to ask police detective Pierre Leblanc to help her do it. Pierre gives his agreement and starts following the trail. He soon finds out that Brasier belongs to a gang whose boss, Cortedani, has ordered the murder.
Rue des Saussaies
1951
3.9Naturally optimistic and mischievous, Jérôme Aubin crossed the time of his adolescence, around 1945, with ease and good humor. The years passed. He married the pretty Françoise, a little neighbor he had known since the age of eight, and soon found himself a secondary school teacher, a little anxious at the thought of facing for the first time students he had been told were particularly turbulent. How will he master this new difficulty? Better than you'd think, thanks to a delicious optimism: boldly going against the grain of conventional methods, he surprises his young audience, thwarting the plans of the dissipated gossips and turning their most tendentious attitudes to his advantage. All this provokes astonishment and concern among the college's leaders. But Jérôme Aubin is no pushover, and even the dreaded general supervisor finds himself obliged to give in to his most audacious initiatives...
The Little Professor
1958
5.0The artist Edouard Lavigne falls in love with a young girl but must quickly leave her because her parents are opposed to this relationship. Edourd's son will go in search of this woman and will thereby meet her daughter. About a love story that continues from one generation to the next.
Julie la rousse
1959
4.3Didier's wife is ill, and he does the best he can to take care of her. But he's often absent and he has casual love affairs. But Leone he meets in Bruxelles wants to become his one and only mistress.
Fatal Affair
1953
8.0Commissaire Perrache, the chief of the D.S.T., the French domestic intelligence service, tries to neutralize a group of terrorists named the Partisans de la Métropole. He sends one of his best agents, inspector Louis Vignon, incidentally the husband of his charming secretary Lucette, on the trail of an illegal transmitter. But Vignon gets kidnapped by the gang and held captive on a boat off the shores of Monaco...
The Suspects
1957
6.0In 1943, a group of high school students decide to take action against the Nazi occupying forces. Showing courage and imagination, they manage to blow up the Kommandantur and to release hostages. But after the killing of a German soldier the Nazi police apparatus strikes back. The young resisters are arrested and two of them are condemned to death.
Green Harvest
1959
The life story of famed French aviatrix Helene Boucher is detailed in Horizons sans fin (Endless Horizons). Giselle Pascal stars as Boucher, who is first seen in 1930, leaving her millinery shop behind in favor of the wild blue yonder. Though the world of aviation was still essentially an all-male one (despite England's Amy Johnson and America's Amelia Earhart), Boucher perseveres, eventually breaking all existing male and female speed and height records. A bit slow on the uptake in the dramatic scenes, the film soars (no pun intended) during the aerial sequences. Horizons san Fin was the winner of the Catholic Award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.
Endless Horizons
1953
7.0Catherine Langeac and André Foucaud are a medical couple, she a general practitioner and he a gynecologist. Their attentiveness and understanding enable them to solve many of their patients' problems.
Secret professionnel
1959
9.0Mr. Scrupule is a mild-mannered smuggler operating on the coast of Nice. If it hadn't been for an unexpected encounter, he'd probably have gone on for a long time in a trade that earned him the esteem of the bourgeoisie. An attractive young woman, Rolande, leads him to new ambitions and soon to dangerous adventures where he risks losing his skin.
Mr. Scrupule, Gangster
1953
1940s · 26 titles
7.5Paris, France, December 1946. Jenny Lamour, an ambitious cabaret singer, and Maurice, her extremely jealous pianist husband, become involved in the thorough investigation of the murder of a shady businessman, led by Antoine, a peculiar and methodical police inspector.
Jenny Lamour
1947
6.7A struggling artist buys a talisman that gives him love, fame and wealth. The talisman is a severed left hand, and it works perfectly, in fact, magically. But of course there is nothing free in this world, and after one year the devil comes and asks for his due.
Carnival of Sinners
1943
7.2Paris, France. Commissaire Wens follows the lead of a ruthless murderer to an unexpected place.
The Murderer Lives at Number 21
1942
7.5In France, in 1930, a supervisor of a boarding school for young offenders seeks to awaken the music by forming a choir, despite the skepticism of his boarding school director.
A Cage of Nightingales
1945
8.0In a lost village in Lapland, Gérard comes to the aid of his friend Anders, in conflict with his father, a rich owner of gold mines.
Tornavara
1943
7.1The struggles of a small business owner come to light in this film by director André Cayatte. The proprietor of a fabric shop, M. Baudu faces stiff competition when a department store moves in across the street, the first of its kind in 1860s Paris. On top of the stresses associated with the rival retailer, Baudu’s niece and two nephews take up residence with him after recently being orphaned. The niece, Denise Baudu, sees the writing on the wall for her uncle’s business so she takes a job as a shop girl with his competitor and despite her success the decision does not register well with the family.
Shop Girls of Paris
1943
7.4A young man comes back to his hometown to be confronted with a bourgeois obnoxious family who has always despised his - now dead - parents because they were music hall artists, "entertainers". But because he's the sole legatee of an uncle's fortune, his relatives become friendly with him... at least for a while.
Le Voyageur de la Toussaint
1943
7.9A famous convict Jacques Collin, alias Trompe la mort, or abbot Carlos Herrera, also called Vautrin, escapes from prison. Chance makes him meet Lucien de Rubempré, an impetuous and eternal lover who, when he is dismissed, collapses. Moved by this fragility, he takes him under his wing, and will do everything possible to ensure that his creature reaches happiness, even if it means imagining the worst shenanigans and other scams, with the help of a band of clever villains.
Vautrin the Thief
1943
7.0Inspector Sergil is a detective comedy. Sergil, inspector of the P.J., investigates three crimes, helped by two pretty women, Bijou and Nadège.
Inspector Sergil
1947
7.0In post-Liberation Paris, a man reunites with a friend and meets the woman of his dreams, only to discover her brother's dark past.
Gates of the Night
1946
5.8The tumultuous loves of a diver and a pretty bitch. Mario loves Perrucha, she only loves money. When, by dint of diving, the boy's health deteriorates, the girl goes to find an important industrialist. Such a story can only end badly and Mario strangles Perrucha.
Sin and Desire
1949
8.0The City of Hope is the place where left-behind artists subsist by scraping by. When one of them is accused of murder, all try to find the real culprit.
Cité de l'espérance
1948
9.0Biography and apology of the famous pilot, nicknamed by some the Archangel, who organized the airmail network of South America, flew the first over the Andes Cordillera, maintained the mystique of the South Atlantic, militated in the Crosses of Fire and perished at the controls of "La Croix du Sud" during its twenty-fourth crossing.
Mermoz
1943
8.0Jacques Audoin falls in love with a pianist, Evelyne Clery, and marries her. In reality, he had wanted to approach her, because he imagined that she had witnessed the murder of the lover of his first wife. Evelyne learns what has happened and, revolted by what she thinks is her husband's plot, commits suicide. Jacques confesses his crime.
Road Blocked
1948
9.0France, 1880. Francois Roquevillard is a respected lawyer in Chambery and the head of a family that prides itself on its impeccable morals. Francois's world rapidly begins to fall apart when his son Maurice elopes to Italy with Edith Frasne, the wife of an esteemed notary.
The Roquevillards
1943
6.8Pierre risks being taken advantage of by an agency that sets up financial scams, he escapes thanks to Marcelle, the secretary of the director of the agency, who is a childhood friend. She does her best to keep the young man away from the scams of his boss. However, the director, in love with Marcelle and jealous of Pierre, succeeds in trapping and ruining him. Marcelle will then denounce him to the police, but before being arrested he will kill her.
The Last Penny
1946
9.0The son of the Comtesse de Brévannes dies. She, who has never wanted to meet her daughter-in-law and who wants to take care of her grandson, goes to their house under the guise of a governess.
La Dame de Haut-le-Bois
1947
8.0When Monsieur Crauqual, the supervisor, is found hanging, all wonder why this rather rich person decided to kill himself. And when a pupil is found hanging too, François and his friends decide to investigate. They are certain there is a killer within the walls of Collège François 1er and determined to prevent him from going on running wild.
The Kids Are Leading the Investigation
1947
8.0Inspector Sergil is assigned the mission to protect the dictator of Santa Juanita during his stay in France and - it goes without saying -trouble begins at once, as of his journey in the fast train from Paris to Marseilles. A lot of opponents of all kinds are intent on liquidating the dictator and they do not particularly like to have Sergil in their way. When Bijou, the inspector's fiancée, accepts to serve as a bodyguard for the dictator, she is soon kidnapped and will not be released until Sergil tells them about their enemy's hiding place. Where the shoe pinches is that the dictator has disappeared and Sergil does not even know where he is.
Sergil et le dictateur
1948
7.0Jacques Herbelin is the faithful husband of Louise and the proud father of Cécile, a kind little girl. But Louise does not reciprocate her husband's affection and prefers to cheat on him in the arms of Marquis de Condottier. The latter is a sinister character who, not satisfied with being Herbelin's wife's lover, sets his heart on their daughter, who has now become a pretty young lady. Jacques can't take it anymore.
Le Droit de l'enfant
1949
8.0Isabelle is a lawyer who has Flip, a private detective, convicted of speeding. But shortly after, a murder is committed of which Isabelle's best friend is suspected. To save her, Isabelle is forced, despite her reluctance, to ask Flip for help, who agrees to look for the culprit.
The Cupid Club
1949
8.5A train driver has not slowed down at a signal and caused an accident whose victim is a gatekeeper. Two inspectors come to investigate the affair. During his interrogation, the driver refuses to provide an explanation for his action and is charged with malpractice. The only one he will tell the truth to is the gatekeeper's wife.
L'Enquête du 58
1945
9.0A plane flying to Dakar is caught in a storm and has to land in the desert. Deprived of a radio, he is unable to give his position and the water reserves are limited to two days. Each, among the military crew and the civilian passengers, experiences the ordeal according to his character.
The Hell of Lost Pilots
1949
7.0Antoine Mouret, an authoritarian restaurateur, is the head of a large family where, for reasons of interest, people only marry cousins. But some have other plans, Marcus especially when he meets a passing circus girl.
The Chain Breaker
1941
7.1Portrait of a two-faced man. By day he is rich, brilliant and respectable financial officer Lussac; at night, he becomes "Mirror", a ruthless gang leader in Marseilles.
Mirror
1947
5.9Claude Géraudy, a banker responsible for a financial scandal, is forced to flee and hides in the mountains with the help of Manu, a young smuggler. Florence, his wife, refuses to join him. Desperate Claude commits suicide, Florence then decides to pass her suicide off as murder in order to receive her late husband's life insurance.
Le Dessous des cartes
1948
1930s · 3 titles
8.0Suzette and Jack form a very nice and rather well-matched couple. The latter is the partner of the new clown Teddy who seems to please the young lady a lot.
Âme de clown
1933
4.4An average worker who feels downtrodden at work and home, dreams of becoming a dictator. His aunt has her own fantasy that the love-of-her-life, a fairground magician, will return to her once more.
Monsieur Coccinelle
1938
8.2Meg decides to commit suicide to escape the marriage to which her father intends her. She is saved by Jean-Pierre, another candidate for suicide, and Léon, a tramp who was just trying to reason with him. The trio then becomes inseparable and organizes a new life based on friendship and freedom.
Beautiful Star
1938

