Magnet of Doom

1963 film

Jean-Paul Belmondo
Charles Vanel
Stefania Sandrelli

CinematographyHenri DecaëEdited byMonique Bonnot
Claude DurandMusic byGeorges Delerue

Release date

1963 (1963) (France)

Running time

102 minCountries

France
Italy^[1]

LanguageFrenchBox office1,484,948 admissions (France)^[2]

Magnet of Doom (French: L'Aîné des Ferchaux, "The Elder Ferchaux"), also known as An Honorable Young Man, is a 1963 French noir film, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, based on the novel of the same title by Georges Simenon.

Synopsis

In Paris the young ex-paratrooper and would-be boxer Michel Maudet loses his first big fight and is sacked by his manager. Needing a job, he answers an ad for a male secretary able to travel and is hired on the spot by Dieudonné Ferchaux, senior partner of a failing bank who has a criminal past. Without telling his girl friend Lina, whom he leaves penniless, that night he flies with Ferchaux to New York. Next morning, Ferchaux is able to collect millions of dollars from his safe-deposit box but cannot touch his US bank account because the French authorities are seeking his extradition. Hiring a car, he and Maudet drive by back roads to Louisiana, shadowed by FBI agents.

Renting an isolated house in New Orleans, Ferchaux falls sick and Maudet gets increasingly frustrated at the whims of an old man with no power left beyond his attaché case of dollars. Going to the neighbourhood bar for drink and company, Maudet mentions his boss's stash to the owner Jeff, a crook and murderer, and then picks up a dancer Lou in a night club. Deciding he would rather be with her, he takes Ferchaux's case of money but something makes him go back with it to the house, where Jeff and an accomplice are trying to rob Ferchaux, who fights back ferociously. Though Maudet routs the villains, Ferchaux has been knifed and dies in his arms. With his last breath he urges Maudet to take his keys, which will open another safe-deposit box full of dollars in Venezuela, but Maudet has had enough.

Production

Jean-Pierre Melville cast Spencer Tracy as Dieudonné Ferchaux, but the actor fell ill. Melville offered the part to Charles Boyer. Though tempted, Boyer opted to make his London stage debut in Terrence Rattigan's Man and Boy.^[3]

Some scenes were shot on location in the U.S. However, the two lead actors were filmed in France.^[4]^: 10 It was Melville's first feature film shot in color and Franscope.^[5]^[4]^: 15

Cast

Jean-Paul Belmondo: Michel Maudet
Charles Vanel: Dieudonné Ferchaux
Michèle Mercier: Lou, the dancer
Ewa Swann (credited as Malvina Silberberg: Lina, the Parisian
Stefania Sandrelli: Angie, the hitchhiker
Andrex: M. Andréi
André Certes: Émile Ferchaux

Release

Magnet of Doom was released in France in 1963.^[1] It was also shown at the inaugural New York Film Festival in Philharmonic Hall.^[6]

The film was released as An Honorable Young Man on DVD by Video Dimensions.^[4]^: 15

Reception

The film was well received in France. It cemented Melville's status in the pantheon of French auteurs.^[7] Cahiers du Cinéma praised the superficiality of Melville's film, relying on appearances to say what it wants. The reviewer compared Melville's eye to Claude Monet, concluding "[Melville] knows how to detect the essential...he is a terribly demanding spectator".^[8]

John Simon of The New Leader saw Magnet of Doom at the New York Film Festival. He dismissed the film as 'more than usually trashy Simenon turned into a would-be thriller, with Belmondo perpetuating his irresistible, smilingly evil, stereotyped self'.^[9] Melville's depiction of America was seen as anachronistic.^[10] The relationship between Maudet and Ferchaux has been described as homoerotic, a common trait of Melville's films.^[11] Magnet of Doom has been described as a "mood piece" where "Very little actually happens in the film, other than the ambience: seedy, squalid, aimless, listless, stirred by Michel’s discontent, boredom and sexual longing."^[12]

When Bertrand Tavernier disparaged the film to Melville, the director responded, "It's my best movie".^[13] He once remarked that it was his most personal film and that it could serve as his will if he were to disappear.^[8] At the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques in 1964, Melville lectured about the importance of set design and art direction using scenes from the film as demonstrations.^[14]

The pilgrimage to Frank Sinatra's birthplace and the "hypnotic car rides" in the film are seen as the most emblematic of Melville's "mystical Americanophilia".^[15]

References

^ ^a ^b "L'Aîné des Ferchaux" (in French). Bifi.fr. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
^ Box office information for film at Box Office Story
^ Baxter, John. Charles Boyer: The French Lover. University Press of Kentucky, 2021. 199.
^ ^a ^b ^c Frodon, Jean-Michel. “Jean-Pierre Melville: The Filmmaker as Undercover Dandy.” Cinéaste, vol. 45, no. 3, 2020. 8–15.
^ Fournier-Lanzoni, Remi. French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present. Continuum, 2002. 457.
^ "New York's Film Festival Presents", The New York Times. September 8, 1963.
^ Zimmer, Jacques and Chantai de Béchade. Jean-Pierre Melville. Paris: Filmo. 1983. 111.
^ ^a ^b Domarchi, Jean. "L'homme des cavernes", Cahiers du Cinéma. Tome XXV, No. 149. November, 1963. 65–6.
^ Simon, John (1967). Private Screenings. The MacMillan Company. p. 85.
^ Canby, Vincent. "'The Godson' (No Relation to 'Godfather') Opens", The New York Times. July 13, 1972.
^ Vincendau, Ginette. Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris. British Film Institute, 2003. 21.
^ Bradshaw, Peter. "Jean-Pierre Melville: Cinematic Poet of the Lowlife and Criminal". The Guardian. August 8, 2017.
^ Dupont, Joan. "Lighting the Way”. Film Comment, vol. 52, no. 5, 2016. 48.
^ Breitbart, Eric. “Call Me Melville.” New England Review , vol. 27, no. 3, 2006. 179.
^ McArthur, Colin. "MISE-EN-SCÈNE DEGREE ZERO: Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï", French Film: Texts and Contexts. Edited by Susan Hayward, and Ginette Vincendeau. Taylor & Francis Group, 2000. 191.