Deux hommes dans Manhattan (1959)

Posted by Steve-O

Two Men in Manhattan is both a realistically grim noir tale and a kind of dream world you can only see at the movies. Released at the end of the classic noir period and near the beginning of the French one, Duex hommes dans Manhattan is a film noir where New York City is the film’s main character. In “A Panorama of American Film Noir (1941-1953)" the French authors Borde and Chaumeton mention that most French noir released beginning in 1955 were garbage. The book was written before this film was released, but I suspect they would have not liked this one either. It’s not a very serious film. Instead, it’s a light and conventional film that the makers clearly enjoyed creating.

This is director Jean-Pierre Melville’s first attempt at noir. According to interviews later in his life, he considered this to be his weakest film. That may be true. He did go on to make the noir-inspired films Bob le flambeur, Le Doulos, Le Samouraï, Le Cercle rouge and Un Flic – I have seen them all and, yes, they are better than this one. (Correction: Bob le flambeur came out before this one in 1955, so this would be Melville's second noir. - Steve-O) Melville's future noir are either great or very good. However that doesn’t make this a bad film, just a good one. The story is simple and light and could have easily have been a pretty good American noir starring Karl Malden and John Garfield. Instead it’s a low-budget French film with director Melville playing the part of the good journalist and Pierre Grasset (Rififi) as a photojournalist that will do anything to sell his photos.

The film looks like it was shot on the run. All the outdoor New York scenes, beginning with some great shots of Times Square, appear to be shot quickly before anyone realized that a film was being made. Just in the first five minutes alone, you can catch Times Square, the UN building and Rockefeller Center at Christmas time.

The plot is simple. The two journalists are on the trail of a story -- a French diplomat, and former Resistance hero, has disappeared from the U.N. for no apparent reason. As they wander through the city, visiting various NYC landmarks tracking down the reason for the disappearance, the journalists eventually discover that the man has died while at the apartment of his mistress. The womanizing and always drunk photographer poises the dead body to look like he died while in bed with his girlfriend and snaps off some photos. Now the two men have a serious disagreement. Delmas (Grasset) wants to take the enhanced photos and use them to create sensational headlines and plenty of cash, but Moreau (Melville’s character name appears to be a pun on “moral”), who feels compassion for the man’s daughter, wants them both to cover up all they have found and bury what they know.

The film’s dialog is both French and English. Melville - who looks like the night owl he portrays with his wide sad eyes - has an interesting face and wasn’t that bad of an actor. I would have liked to see him in more films. (He was the narrator for Bob le flambeur.) It should be noted that many of the actors, especially the American ones, clearly aren’t professionals. Also, some of the English lines are just horrible, including the ones spoken by Melville. However what the film lacks in writing and acting is made up for with the great documentary-style footage of the Big Apple. The deep-focus long shots are beautiful and Melville’s use of shadow and light is breathtaking.

This week’s Film Noir of the Week may not be widely available, but it’s worth seeking out.