Tra le undici e mezzanotte

The beginning promised great things:in the space of five minutes ,the director manages to pay a tribute to two American movies ("the whole town's talking (1935),the great dictator(1940)) and to a French one too ("copie conforme",Jean Dreville,1946).While people,leaving a movie theater,complain about the implausibility of these dead ringers films,they actually meet three doubles who make them shiver.

What follows is a something of a let-down.There are still strange scenes,for instance the fashion show where every outfit is called after the name of a thriller(novel);then the gangsters bursting into the room and making a clean sweep of all the values.But Henry (in the credits ,it's a y)Decoin gives a rather satisfactory script three different treatments in turn: whodunit,film noir and comedy.And however the idea was splendid:a cop (Jouvet) realizes that he's the dead ringer of a man who's been murdered and he takes his place.Sometimes it works and the dialogue is really funny and the story suspenseful.But sometimes it doesn't and interest falls away:the scenes with Madeleine Robinson,who is a very fine actress though,are not convincing.Too many subplots and too many characters do not help.

It 's a watchable curio ,but as far dead ringers are concerned,Alfred Hitchcock did better with "the wrong man"(1956).He even transcended the topic with "Vertigo" two years after.