La Bête Humaine (1938)

12/23/1938Drama, Romance, Thriller1h 38m
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Overview

Returning by train to the French port of Le Havre, Jacques Lantier, a tormented railwayman, meets by chance the impulsive stationmaster Roubard and Séverine, his wife.

Top Billed Cast

  1. Cast 1

    Jean Gabin

    Lantier

  2. Cast 1

    Simone Simon

    Séverine

  3. Cast 1

    Fernand Ledoux

    Roubaud

  4. Cast 1

    Julien Carette

    Pecqueux

  5. Cast 1

    Blanchette Brunoy

    Flore

  6. Cast 1

    Gérard Landry

    Dauvergne

  7. Cast 1

    Jenny Hélia

    Philomène

  8. Cast 1

    Colette Régis

    Victoire

  9. Cast 1

    Claire Gérard

    Voyager

I have to be honest and say that I was quite underwhelmed by this. Whilst Jean Renoir has certainly produced a beautifully gritty film that evokes a genuine sense of how life on the French Chemin de fer might have been in the late 1930s', this left me feeling that a great deal had been lost between the book and the screen... "Roubeau" is a forty something railway conductor who has a much, much younger wife. When he discovers that she has had an affair with her godfather, he forces her to arrange a meeting on his (moving) train and kills him. Whilst not actually witnessed by fellow railway work...