Les assassins du dimanche (1956) User Reviews

Fast car

[dbdumonteil · 4 August 2015]

Alex Joffé's career is overlooked today and however ,most of his films are interesting :"Six Heures A Perdre" has an unexpected final twist,which was not common in 1946,"FOrtunat' and "Pas Question Le Samedi "display a friendly look at the Jews ;"Les Fanatiques" is a suspenseful disaster movie before the seventies trend ,and all happens in real time.

Unity of time is also present in "Les Assassins Du Dimanche",the action of which takes place in about 24 hours .

A garage owner (Jean -Marc Thibault,cast against type,for he is known as a comic actor) has to repair a German couple's Mercedes;alas they leave before the mechanic and his apprentice over-tighten the nuts of the steering rod.

The suspense is purely psychological:no real "assassin" ,but an average man's reaction to an event which may cause a tragedy;panic-stricken ,the garage owner lies to his apprentice (played by Young Georges Poujouly,known around the world as the boy in 'Jeux Interdits" (= forbidden games))but it does not fool the youngster a single minute;his self-interested unscrupulous brother tries to buy his wife off.The Office Catholique Du Cinema" praised the movie:the positive intervention of the priest fits well in the screenplay,particularly in the scene in the police station,where the mechanic's little boy brings a whole lot of emotion.

Joffé does not blame the German driver straight out;and nevertheless ,we feel that his driving at a dizzying speed -at a time when there was no speed limit!-,and his careless attitude -and those of his passengers- are as dangerous for the others as the threatening nut;his pictures ,without a voice over ,show that he does not approve of these would be ace drivers doing so.

"Les Assassins Du Dimanche" deals with responsibility,a subject with is still relevant today;give it a chance.

psychological suspense in a village and on the road

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 10/10 · 15 February 2020]

Saturday in a small village in the mountains in France, a german young couple has stopped to repair their Mercedes in a garage held by Jean-Marc Thibault. A business man drives very fast in the country and his motor breaks down, he arrives at this same garage and urges the owner to repair all night his motor. Early in the morning, the german couple leaves the village in their Mercedes without knowing the repair isn't finished. And from now, hell begins for the garage owner, everybody's against him though he isn't entirely responsible for this negligence that can be rapidly fatal. There are a lot of important scenes in all the major places of the village, café des sports, church, bike shop, bike racing in the streets, garages, local police... with all the picturesque characters of the village with crunchy dialogues. There is a lot of suspense with the Mercedes sequences, about what kind of road she's driving on? This original movie deals with dangerous speed on the road and responsabilities after a negligence. Lots of twists in this little known gem from talented Alex Joffé. Jean-Marc Thibault is touching in the character of the tortured garage owner, his scene with his kid at the police is so moving. Unforgettable. This movie is to be shown to kids so they learn about responsability..

A good french suspense movie

[searchanddestroy-1 · 28 June 2014]

A suspense film without being a crime flick. A good drama that was usually aired on french broadcasts, in the seventies. But a rare film although. The tale of a petty mechanic, owner of a car repair shop, who accidentally neglects to fix a car which he was supposed to take care of. The the car owners, unaware of the problem, think everything is fixed and hit the road again. And when the mechanic realizes the problem, potentially lethal, he tries everything to warn and among everything stop the Young couple aboard the not entirely repaired car, before the accident. A matter of life and death for all the opponents.

A good suspense that reminds me my childhood.

part psychological drama, part thriller

[myriamlenys · 8/10 · 4 September 2018]

A small town in France called Mérival. A young couple leave their expensive Mercedes in a garage. By a sad coincidence, the car is given back to them before the repairs have been fully completed. The couple drive off happily, not realizing that a rather important part of the car might decide to stop functioning. The couple should be warned as soon as possible - and the same, of course, goes for the young lady they're giving a lift to - but then, which garage owner likes to admit to a mistake of this magnitude ?

Quite a good movie, this one. The black-and-white cinematography is unremarkable - don't expect any visual fireworks - but the story and screenplay are exceptionally clever. On the one hand you get a small group of people wrestling with moral dilemmas, in a twisty and hard-fought battle of duty versus expediency ; on the other hand you get a masterfully choreographed race against the clock, with an unsafe car barrelling along on a series of roads and highways.

In other words : one can cut the suspense with a knife.

And no, I'm not going to tell you if the warning is given, just as I'm not going to tell you about the eventual fate of the car. I'm a reviewer, not a sadist.