Bad Seed (1934)

AKA Mauvaise Graine.

If you want me to watch a film then telling me that Billy Wilder is involved is one easy way to do it. I was tempted by Bad Seed anyway, it seemed like a fun little crime flick, but then saw that it was the directorial debut of Wilder (credited here alongside Alexander Esway, although the involvement of Esway has since been mentioned as a way to simply secure financing).

Pierre Mingand plays our lead character, Henry, a young man who is upset when his father (Paul Escoffier) decides to stop funding his happy-go-lucky lifestyle and takes his car away from him.  Henry has a date to keep with a young woman, which is part of his motivation for stealing the car when he sees it parked up with the keys left in it. This sets in motion a chain of events that get Henry involved with a gang of car thieves, and has him growing close to Jeannette (Danielle Darrieux), the sister of young compulsive tie-thief, Jean (Raymond Galle).

While this is a feature debut, while it's a French film before he found his feet in Hollywood, and while it's a pretty lightweight bit of fluff, I would argue that there's still something here to signify the talent of Wilder. The dialogue may be more sparse than usual, but it's often quite sharp and witty (co-written by Wilder, Jan Lustig, Max Kolpé, and Claude-André Puget), and things are presented with a great blend of economy and assuredness.

Mingand is a decent leading man, and the rest of the cast make up a memorable selection of supporting characters as things start to focus in on the relationship between him and Darrieux, who is also very good at portraying someone criminal enough to be dangerous, but also happy to one day leave that life behind her. While I have already named Escoffier and Galle, it's also worth adding a compliment or two for Michel Duran, Georges Malkine, and Gaby Héritier, as well as Marcel Maupi, who plays someone desperate to see results from the police when he becomes a victim of car theft.

It's all quite predictable, and all quite safe (this is a crime thriller with some main characters you hope will see the error of their ways and start a new chapter in life before the end credits pop up), but it's also very easy to enjoy, particularly in a couple of main scenes that show how brazen the car thieves are. I would say that this is ripe for a modern remake, but suspect that it's a bit pointless when you consider how many of the individual elements here have been recycled and reworked in a variety of movies, from crime thrillers to rom-coms. If anyone DOES want to have a go at it . . . I'll be interested in seeing the final result. It might be hard to beat this version though.

8/10

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