Jacques Feyder has a lot to answer for; his penchant for casting his wife, Francoise Rosay in his films arguably inspired Bryan Forbes to do the same thing a quarter of a century later, a case of pygmies imitating giants. By all accounts this was THE film in France in 1934 and that's not easy when you're stuck with a leading man as insipid as this one - I'll refrain from naming him to spare his embarrassment. The premise was tried and tested, our old friend the bounder who shames the noble family and joins the Foreign Legion to forget (I know the feeling, I have a strong desire to join the 'legion' when watching Nanette Newman attempting to act in a Bryan Forbes film). This is easier said than done for no sooner has he arrived in North Africa than he encounters a dead ringer for the woman who caused his downfall in La Belle France. In both cases she is played by Marie Bell, whose finest hour was a few short years in the future when she played Christine in Duvivier's masterpiece Un Carnet de bal. Perhaps I should have said in one-and-a- half cases because although Bell physically plays both Florence and Irma as Irma her voice is dubbed. Even Gabin would have had his work cut out to steal the film from Charles Vanel in the almost cameo role of the brothel owner and husband of Rosay who supplies the films' title via the cards she is always shuffling and fortunes she is always telling. Holding up surprisingly well in spite of the acting joke leading man this is more than well worth watching.
Review of Le grand jeu
