In the village of Saint Robin, the population receives poison pen letters signed as The Raven spreading rumors and accusations. Dr. Rémy Germain (Pierre Fresnay), who is having an affair with the social assistant Laura (Micheline Francey), the wife of the psychiatrist Dr. Michel Vorzet (Pierre Larquey) that works with him at the local hospital, is the main victim of The Raven. His affair is disclosed and he is also accused of abortionist. When a patient of the hospital commits suicide after receiving a letter telling that his cancer is terminal, the loathed nurse Marie Corbin (Héléna Manson) is arrested since people believe she is The Raven. But soon there are other letters and Dr. Vorzet tries to identify who might be the notorious Raven.

"Le Corbeau" is an intriguing film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with the storyline about a mysterious character entitled The Raven that writes poison pen letters and the power of rumors and the effect in the population of a small town in France. The film was banned in France since it was produced by the German company Continental Films during World War II in the occupied France. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Corvo" ("The Raven")

Even the children in Henri-Georges Clouzot's Le Corbeau (The Raven) are sneaky and malicious. No doubt they reflect their upbringing in the stifling French village of St. Robin, where a series of poison-pen letters – signed The Raven – has galvanized the populace into a spree of spying, whispering and finger-pointing. Most of the letters accuse an aloof doctor (Pierre Fresnay) of occupying illicit beds and of performing illegal operations – relieving women of burdens they're unwilling to bear.

The accusations aren't entirely fanciful – Fresnay has cheerless affairs going with the young wife (Micheline Francey) of a sententious, much older doctor (Pierre Larquey) and with the town pump (Ginette Leclerc), a smoldering seductress who's both lame and a hypochondriac. But the evil epistles disgorge more than enough malice to go around, alluding to dirty little secrets that touch just about everybody in this Gallic Peyton Place.

When one of the letters causes the suicide of a young man dying of liver cancer, another slips out of a wreath on his casket during his funeral procession, and yet another flutters from the rafters of the church during the requiem mass. The search for the anonymous writer reaches the point of hysteria – what else does the unseen assassin know, and who will be the next victim? Alone among the townsfolk, the mother (Sylvie) of the suicide seems resigned and resolute....

Clouzot has been called the French Hitchcock, but when Le Corbeau hit the screens in 1943 – released by a German production company during the Nazi occupation of France – he wasn't welcomed as warmly as the mischievous but harmless cherub across the Atlantic. its mordantly unflattering portrait of the French bourgeoisie was shunned as little short of treasonous. To be sure, Le Corbeau, like most of Clouzot's work (Diabolique, The Wages of Fear) seems to take Shakespeare's misanthropic Timon of Athens as inspiration for its outlook on humanity; it's certainly no tourist brochure for the French provinces.

When Otto Preminger remade the movie in 1951 as The 13th Letter (setting it in the Province of Québec, and starring Michael Rennie, Linda Darnell, Charles Boyer and Constance Smith), he had to pull back from the nastier material – the routine, glum adultery, the rumors of abortions – and apply rosier tints to the characters. None of that sentimental nonsense for Clouzot, who unrepentantly hewed to his malevolent vision right to the bitter end.

It's a legend!and a black one!The most famous scandal of French cinema during the occupation,le corbeau (the raven) has not lost its feathers even today. The facts:it was produced by the German firm "continental" where Clouzot used to work as a scripter "en chef".But people went as far as saying that the movie was shown in German movie theaters under the disagreeable title "a small town like so many other ones in France" .Balderdash!The movie was never released in Germany at the time. As Roger Boussinot wrote in "l'encyclopédie du cinéma"(1980),"the bourgeoisie ,be it French or German was all the same everywhere,and Hitler,whose fortunes were on the wane ,had to treat his own (bourgeoisie) gently.Actually,the film ran into difficulties after the Liberation.It was the ideal scapegoat,and along with so many others ,like Sacha Guitry,Arletty(the female star of "les enfants du paradis"),Ginette Leclerc (the female star of "le corbeau")and other "collaborators" (sic),Clouzot was blacklisted.

Why so much acrimony against "le corbeau"?Because it depicted life in French provinces in a way that was far from being idyllic.Anonymous letters are sent by the "raven",and drags the town through the mud.At first sight ,it seems like a simple whodunit:Clouzot 's first effort (l'assassin habite au 21) was a thriller.But there's more to the picture than meets the eye:what was latent in the first movie,we see it in its true colors:Clouzot's contempt for the whole human race,which will increase over the years.No character in "le corbeau " to identify with:the prototype of the film noir.Where is good?Where is bad?The most famous scene remains that of the light sway :the world is not black and white,what you thought black might be white and vice versa .

"Le Corbeau' was released at the wrong time.It was too different from the "Occupation" movies which dealt with "escape" "dream" as works as Carné's "les visiteurs du soir" or Jean Delannoy/Jean Cocteau's "l'éternel retour" testify.It was 1947 before HG Clouzot was allowed to direct again.Four years has passed,and he came back to Belgian writer Steeman (whose "le dernier des six" and "l'assassin habite au 21" he had already adapted),but his venom and his misanthropy hadn't dried up,and more masterpieces were to follow.

Otto Preminger directed a remake "the 13th letter" in 1951 which I haven't seen.On the other hand ,there was a French "modern "update by Yves Boisset (Radio Corbeau,1989)which is watchable but which can't be compared to Clouzot's thunderbolt back in 1943.

Although I pride myself on my knowledge of fine films, I must admit with a trace of embarrassment that I had never heard of this film before yesterday, when a brief blurb on the Turner Classic Movies schedule prompted me to watch it. My principal motivation for watching it was that it was directed by Clouzot, whose "Diabolique" and "Wages of Fear" are favorites of mine. What a find! While not quite the equal of "Diabolique," it comes very close, and it is the equal of anything by Hitchcock. Viewed simply as a thriller, it is marvelous, but it is much more than that. It is a profound character study and a howl of rage at the small-mindedness and pettiness of small town bourgeois communities. Considering that it was made during the German occupation, it can also be viewed as about as scathing a critique of Gestapo methods as a director could be expected to make without risking his life.

After I saw "The Sorrow and The Pity" in 1971, I held the belief that any French artist who continued to work during the occupation was a legitimate target for criticism. Since then I have moderated this view somewhat. After all, who among us can honestly say what we would do in a similar situation? While there is no excuse for collaboration, can an artist be criticized for staying in his country and making a protest in the only way he can? I think that is what Clouzot did here, and the result is a masterwork. I only wish this were more widely known and publicized. 10/10

According to a short interview with filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier in the French DVD-edition, the production company responsible for Le Corbeau was founded at the instigation of the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. It was supposed to produce unpolitical, „uplifting" entertainment. And it functioned outside of the control and censorship authority of the collaborationist French Vichy regime. Somehow, with Le Corbeau director Georges Henri Coluzot succeeded in standing the company's original precept on its head, painting a dark and pessimistic picture of French society. The courage, daring (and foolhardiness?) of the makers of Le Corbeau is, I assume, beyond comprehension for a contemporary audience. Many French, not least the Resistance and the post war authorities, were offended by this portrayal. But, doesn't the title sequence say explicitly that it could have happened anywhere?

That is true, of course. The pastime of making slanderous remarks and general gossiping is an universal one. In Le Corbeau, set in a small provincial town where everybody knows everybody, almost no one and hardly any scandalous subject is spared. Virtually the whole community gets caught in this whirl of wild accusations and suspicions (I detected a certain resemblance with High Noon). It is beautiful how the director gets the message through that nobody is entirely good or entirely bad, culminating in a great scene where a primitive lamp is sent swinging back and forth, letting the shadows wander.

In this movie an anonymous writer sends letters to different people with wild accusations. Oddly, the big letters, the layout and even the short, catchy phrasing look like the prototype of a tabloid newspaper. The letters actually are hand made scandal sheets in an era when newspapers still were meant for fully literate people. One of the highlights of the movie is a funeral procession in which one of those letters falls from the horse drawn hearse. Due to its bold lettering it is immediately recognizable to everyone, but the mourners do not dare pick it up and wait until a curious child gets hold of it. Then they quickly gather around – a wonderful scene.

Le Corbeau is a timeless movie that I can highly recommend.

Clouzot's second film, "The Raven" was a masterpiece of misanthropy… Dissecting the moral collapse of a small French town plagued by a wave of poison pen-letters, Clouzot revealed a sour, embittered vision of human motivation…

Greed, envy, hypocrisy and hatred are his characters' primary instincts; cruelty and mutual suspicion inform every act of communication… Such was the power – and, perhaps, truth – of Clouzot's vision of provincial life that it was interpreted as an act of collaboration with the occupying Nazis; rumors suggested it was shown in Germany as anti-French propaganda… Clouzot found himself unemployable for several years…

The idiocy and falsity of the accusations were proved by his subsequent films…

Le Corbeau is directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and co-written by Clouzot and Henri Chavance. It stars Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, Pierre Larquey and Micheline Francey. Music is by Tony Aubin and cinematography by Nicolas Hayer.

We are in a small French town, the actual name of which is not known and is inconsequential. A series of poison pen letters are being sent out to the town dignitaries, accusing them of all sorts of inappropriate operations. The letters are signed by someone calling themselves Le Corbeau (The Raven), and pretty soon the town starts to implode as suspicion and mistrust runs wild.

Famously it was the film that saw Clouzot banned from making films, the then young director receiving flak from all quarters of the Vichy Government - Catholic Church - Left Wingers and others too! The asides to the Nazi occupation of France at the time not being acknowledged until some years later. That very theme obviously holds considerable weight, but it's not the be all and end all of Clouzot's magnificent movie.

Clouzot and Chavance tap into the troubling fallibility of the human race, portraying a town quickly submerged in moral decay. There is caustic observations on the higher echelons of society, a clinical deconstruction of a town quick to cast aspersions without thinking of consequences, while the script boasts frank intelligence and no fear of censorship. That a town so ripe in respected denizens could become so diseased, so quickly, makes for powerful viewing. All are guilty as well, nobody escapes, even the youngsters are liars or cheats, thieves or rumour spreaders, this be a Hades town where negativity runs rife and leads to broken bodies, broken souls and broken human spirits.

Very much a bastion of proto-noir cinema, it's photographed with an awareness to marry up to the acerbic thematic at work. Shadows feature prominently, even in daylight, canted angles are used to great effect, broken mirrors perfectly imbuing the fractures of the human psyche. A number of scenes are startlingly memorable, a funeral procession and a church service interrupted by one of The Raven's letters are superbly staged, the pursuit of a nurse through the cobbled streets is menacing, and the finale is hauntingly raw. Top performances across the board from the cast brings further rewards, whilst simultaneously adding more plaudits to Clouzot's direction. All in all, a remarkable, fascinating and potent piece of cinema. 9/10

"Beware! I see all and tell all." So quoth the Raven, the pen name of the mysterious writer of poison pen letters that has plagued a small town in France with suspicion, fear and anxiety. Since this film was made by a Frenchman under a German controlled studio during Nazi occupied France in 1943, there is a subtext not necessarily explicit in the film itself, but nonetheless pervades its very essence. In Le Corbeau, Dr. Remy Germain becomes a victim when letters start circulating that accuse him of having an affair with a married woman and of being an abortionist. Both of these accusations are false but do contain half-truths, and it is the unfortunate tendency for groups of people, usually motivated by fear, to assume the worst. Furthermore, Germain is an outsider, in that he refuses to participate in gossip and avoids social clicks, which ironically makes him a target. Soon he will find himself under suspicion and alienated. Since virtually every member of the community has some skeleton in their closet, they would much rather turn their ire on the accused than risk having their own affairs aired by The Raven. And so the drama escalates to a crisis where Clouzot does not even spare the victim of blame. By assuming a position of detachment, Germain has turned a blind eye and thereby contributing to ignorance which only provides fuel for the Raven and the lies and deceit spread like a plague.

Someone unknown sends a series of slanderous letters to various people in a small French town, the motive apparently being to drive a local medical doctor out. The letters are signed: "The Raven".

On the face of it, the story is a kind of whodunit. Who is the Raven, and what motivates him or her? That's the mystery. There's no shortage of suspects, including the very doctor who supposedly is being hounded.

But the film, released during the dregs of the Nazi regime in Germany, contains relevant political subtext and themes, not the least of which is the idea that someone, anyone, can be an informer. Knowing a town's dirty little secrets, the rumors, people's weaknesses and vices can be deadly in the hands of someone with a penchant for writing, and a desire to tell all. What the raven writes is to some extent true. And the truth turns the townsfolk against each other.

The raven, as an anonymous entity, functions as a whistle blower, a snitch, a spy, a secret agent, a kind of Deep Throat. Thematically, the film is dark and subversive.

The film's B&W lighting is noirish and effective. I especially liked the sequence where a naked light bulb hanging down from the ceiling gets swung back and forth, like a pendulum, as two characters converse about moral pendulums of right and wrong, sanity and insanity, light and darkness. Where does one begin and the other end, asks a character.

Although "The Raven" gets off to a slow start, the plot and the thematic import do pick up. Two-thirds in, the film curves deep, both as a whodunit and in its cinematic statement on the issues germane to whistle blowing and informing.

This takes place in a small French town in 1943. Someone called "The Raven" is sending poison pen letters to various people in the town. They're filled with half-truths or outright lies but it begins to affect people. Quickly the whole town falls apart--relationships are destroyed, mistrust and suspicion are all over and it finally leads to suicide and a murder.

Plotwise this may seem familiar to many but it's beautifully done. The film moves quickly, is well-acted and director Henri-Georges Clourot (who also directed the classic "Diabolique") does a wonderful job of visualizing the paranoia and hatred of the townspeople. The best sequence has a nurse running away when she thinks she is being chased by a crowd. Also this deals with sex outside marriage, pregnancy and abortion--taboo subject in 1943.

Believe it or not this was seen as Nazi propaganda in its day! It was shot while France was being occupied and shows a town full of violent, suspicious and angry people. French people thought it was a slap in the face to them--showing them as ignorant people who let lies destroy them. That seems pretty silly now.

It's now rightfully regarded as a classic. Well worth catching. I give it a 10.

If you liked "Diabolique" and "Wages of Fear" check out this earlier, equally good film by the same director. I was confused a bit by the quick introduction to all the characters, but the suspense is maintained and controlled with precision. The final 15 minutes are gemlike, a shuffling of possibilities, and the final 30 seconds a quick succession of powerful images. If you like whodunits, like Rene Claire's "And Then There Were None" you will like this one.

Gathering up films to watch last year that were affected by the Nazi Occupation of France,I found out about a title from Henri-Georges Clouzot which angered both the Nazis and the Resistance,and led to Clouzot being banned from film making for 3 years! Deciding to spend the next few months watching French cinema,I felt that it was time to finally open the raven's letter.

The plot:

Working in a small town,Dr Rémy Germain gets a "poison pen" letter from someone called "The Raven" who claims that they know about Germain having an affair with psychiatrist Dr. Vorzet's wife Laura,and also of performing illegal abortions. Trying to keep the letter under wraps,Germain finds his attempts to fail,as The Raven sends letters around town,publicly revealing peoples most personal details. Initially limiting the letters to peoples private lives, The Raven catches the town by surprised horror,when a letter causes a patient of Germain to kill himself.

View on the film:

Inspired by a real "poison letter" case that took place in Tulle, Limousin (signed "The eye of the tiger") in 1917,the screenplay by co-writer/(along with Louis Chavance) director Henri-Georges Clouzot sends the letters to the gripped with fear Occupied France.Openly having a character state "Evil is a necessary thing.",the writers tear the town up with a ruthlessly allegorical Film Noir,by making the search for The Raven,one where everybody is covered in grave doubts,and the "resistance" to the letter is torn down by mistrust and deceit. Getting on the wrong side of everyone, (with "The Raven" being revived in real life letters on the Clearstream affair,leaking details about French politicians secret bank accounts.)

The writers strike a brutal punch against the Nazis, (who ran Continental Films studio) by making the letters drying up info being given to the self-appointed,ruling elite in the town.Leaving this work as a mark for 3 years,director Clouzot & cinematographer Nicolas Hayer fly with the raven into the darkest areas of the town.Opening up the anxiety with each new letter,Clouzot sweeps across the town with ultra-stylish tracking shots which turn on every suspect in town.

Unveiling the secrets,Clouzot soaks the title in an intense Film Noir atmosphere of dread,by superbly making the decayed shadows shining down on the residences subtly reflect the "grey" world they are trapped in.Joined by a stunning Micheline Francey (who got banned from acting for a year after appearing here!) as the unsteady on her feet Laura Vorzet, Pierre Fresnay gives an extraordinary performance as Germain,thanks to Fresnay trimming Germain's "clean cut" image as secrets fly out of his hand,and turn Germain into a Film Noir loner in the wilderness of the town,as the mysterious letter writer quotes The Raven,never more.

"Le Courbeau" was Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece. He paid dearly for having been instrumental in bringing it to the screen. At the time it went into production, an occupied France was not the best place to be. Because Clouzot's picture was made through German owned Continental Films, with its distribution rights, proved to cause the opposite effect than what the director wanted. He paid a high price for daring to present his tale about a page of shame in French History. Not only did the left despised this work, but Clouzot was also criticized by the Vichy government of the ultra right.

The story takes place in a provincial town where poison pen letters begin appearing all over the place. They are being sent to everyone. The main target of the intrigue points out to one of the doctors in town who is accused of performing illegal abortions as well as carrying on illicit affairs with some of the town's respectable women. The letters destroy lives and reputations without any consideration to the ruined lives along the way.

Not having seen this film in years, we must congratulate the Criterion DVD people for the glorious transfer they have done. Nicolas Hayer's crisp black and white cinematography is a joy to watch again. Tony Aubin's music score plays well in the background, complimenting Clouzot's vision.

The film is also a joy to watch because of the fabulous performances from this talented cast. Pierre Fresnay makes a wonderful Dr. Remy Germain, the man at the center of the story. Ginette Leclerc, one of the best actresses of the period and Micheline Francey, who plays Laura, make a valuable contribution. Helena Manson seen as Marie Corbin, the hated nurse, does a fine job as well.

We recommend any viewer to watch the Criterion DVD to admire Henri-Georges Clouzot masterpiece that speaks volumes about human beings at a trying time of their lives.

It still amazes me that a film of this nature was made in 1943. It oozes with a grade of sensuality and vulgarity which would only resurface several years later in popular films of lesser qualities.

We have here a film project so compelling that Hitchcock himself lost the bid for its purchase by a few hours (according to online reports).

I can only imagine what sort of movie Hitchcock would have fashioned from its elements. But history sometimes lets fate decide the best outcomes in most interesting ways. I don't think this movie could have been made in the United States nor in the USA of latter days and have had produced such a fascinating delivery from cast, crew and director.

From its first frames in a cemetery to its final quiet scene down a village street, every shot conspires to bring one into the story.

The film is in French, which will not attract a certain segment of the film watching public. That is all well and good. Those who refuse to watch movies because they are in other languages deserve to be denied the pleasure of such masterworks as this film.

Every characterization is spun out with attention to the most intimate detail. To paraphrase another reviewer: every person in this town appears culpable and sinister -- even the children are depicted with their own brand of menace brewing and boiling ready to swoop down and seize control.

The cinematography has a more modern look and polish than just about any other film made during this time in film history. I admit there are scenes which display a brand of charming crustiness and provinciality which very few directors are able to reproduce today -- except of course for Woody Allen in "Zelig". Yet, they served their purpose for the telling of this story.

But all in all, there is a feeling of immediacy that may not have been captured by many films of this era. It is brazen and bold. Other words that comes to mind are: an honestly wild touch of realism.

All these add to the story in a most telling way which leads to the surprising denouement in a most curious and circuitous manner.

Banned in both France and Germany at the time. In retrospect, we can see why. We have here a film which must have shocked a great number of people. But today? Not so much...but none of the strengths are lost. All of its potency remains intact.

Le Corbeau is classic cinema which should be known more and recognized more - for its brilliance and power.

There is one thing that the French do better than almost any country, they produce first class cinema. Le Corbeau (The Raven) is no exception. Director Henri-Georges Clouzot makes a fine film from a popular novel about real poison pen strife in Tulane France during Vichy France in the early 40's.

The first thing an American would notice about the film, there are references, nay, there are actual scenes of passion and sex, clothed, but obvious between Pierre Fresnay of the pencil mustache and Ginette Leclerc of the lacquered lips in a 1943 film. It's subdued, and the biting of the hand scene is a little pulpy, but these folks want to do it. Americans would have to wait for Bogart and Bacall before they got some steam.

Since the Nazi's were essentially in control of France at the time, they thought an anti-informant film a bad idea. They hated it, but the French audience's ground down by what was essentially a military defeat and then an occupation, were thrilled by the tension and mystery of Le Corbeau. There are many secrets about the townspeople that complicate life in this tense little town until the culprit has a comeuppance. There are a number of classic original scenes like the light bulb scene or the avenging angel scene. This one holds up very well.

This film really is a fine example of good creative screen writing. Considering how marvelous most of Henri-Georges Clouzot's other film's have been (such as LES DIABOLIQUES and THE WAGES OF FEAR), this film didn't come as a complete surprise to me. I expected high quality and I sure got it.

The beauty of Clouzot's script is the originality. The idea of an evil person who sends hundreds of "poison pen" letters anonymously in a small town is very intriguing--especially when it eventually results in false accusations, fights and even death. Throughout, the film does a wonderful job of exploring the darkest aspects of human nature. In other words, while the letters are vile, they only have the power that the mindless masses give them. Additionally, throughout the film, again and again, I found myself thinking I had figured out WHO was sending these letters. While the actual villain wasn't super-hard to figure out, I was guessing and changing my mind about who it was up until the very end. Great job.

PS--a minor character in the film, Roger Blin as François was an uncanny double for Paul Muni--he almost looked like a long-lost twin!

PPS--If you like this film, try the American film PARTY WIRE. While not as subtle or well written, it's a dandy film about gossip.

Cruel and fully aware of it. I was lucky enough to see this movie in the late 60s for the first time; since then, every time, I can watch it, I do!

True, there is the sordid story about the Collaboration: who did, who did not? Who could avoid it: probably moving to Brazil would have helped a lot of directors, actors and crews. Yet fleeing France would have been rather lame than face reality. H.G.Clouzot's movie should have been called the Crow, rather than the Raven. Edgar A. Poe gave to the bird some poetic background. on the other hand, the manic croaking of the Crow, like an evil laugh would have been justified as the villain of the movie at one point seems to morph - psychologically- into a crow. Vichy was about hypocrisy. Anti-abortion, bourgeoisie's hidden lies, secret lovers, etc... Somewhere in France, a typical town finds itself obliged to look at its true self. Some people will commit suicide. A lover reveals itself (no spoiler) to be not really loving; the hero seems unable to choose who to court. Until it is revealed that real Love can sacrifice itself. At the end, Justice is served by Love, maternal revengeful Love. Like a goddess from a Greek tragedy. All the actors are doing an amazing job, down to the teenager whose heart is already housing hate and disillusionment. This script deserves a 2012 remake... maybe this time using emails and twitter as mean to weave the tale. Evil is in us and nobody is immune if we do not accept to give some Love back.

This film was produced while the Nazi's occupied France in 1943 and was financed by the Germans. After the war with Germany, France was very upset with the film and would not allow it to be shown. However, as we know today, it has become a great French film classic and has many awards. This film was considered a mystery thriller, with a person writing poison pen letters under the name Le Corbeau (English Translation: The Raven) Most of these poison pen letters were written to all the towns people and told of many dark secrets they were hiding. One person was in a hospital which was numbered # 13 and wanted desperately to change his bed because it was bad luck. All kinds of problems resulted from these letters signed by the Raven and before you know it, this story becomes a mystery that seems to never end. Great film to view and enjoy, try to view it some time on late time TV.

This film is terrifying. The opening scene of the town shot over a cemetery gives hints of what is to come. The poorly-focused quality (typical for copies of this film?), combined with high contrast give it a surreal appearance. The story is of profound cruelty. The misanthropy of a few is distributed effectively (via hundred of poison pen letters) among the many, working to provoke suspicion, persecution, suicide and revenge. This film brings back memories of other horror films of spreading malaise (Night of the Living Dead, eg), but is all the more effective because there is nothing supernatural at work....only the darkness of the human heart....

This is, for the most part, an interesting little movie that explores how a series of anonymous poison pen letters tear a town apart. The idea is intriguing, there are some notable scenes, as in one where the town turns on someone they think is responsible, and the movie does a good job of throwing suspicion on various people.

At the same time, the movie often has a sameness to it. Still, I would have rated it higher if the denouement had been solid. But it actually feels random. I just didn't believe the ending. As a study of growing hysteria in a small town, this is a pretty good movie. But it also sets itself up as a mystery, and as a mystery it is a dismal failure.

This film may have dismayed the Germans (as occupiers of France in 1943) and the French (both before the "Liberation" and after), but it cannot simply be reduced to a film that opposed informing on fellow Frenchmen (the presumed hidden anti-German message) nor a film whose portrait of French people as petty snitches undermined efforts to rally the Resistance.

The film raises questions not only about social life in France under the German Occupation, but also about the foundations of the social order in general.

First, it's necessary to be clear that "the Raven" was not merely Dr. Vorzet, for as he himself says (perhaps in self-defense), it was impossible for one soul to write the more than 800 anonymous letters that were penned over the course of a few days. Although Dr. Vorzet may have started it (or perhaps his sister-in-law, Marie Corbin), the practice of denouncing the dirty little secrets of one's neighbors spread like a contagious disease. Second, one should bear in mind that the accusations contained in the anonymous letters bore some approximation to the truth: for example, that patient in bed #13 had terminal cancer, that public officials were guilty of embezzling funds (we don't know this for sure, but the defensive attitudes of the accused make it obvious what Clouzot thinks), that any number of individuals were having or were on the verge of having adulterous affairs, and even that Dr. Germain may well be a bit trigger-happy in snuffing out the life of the new-born (anxiety attacks concerning the mother's life which are a product of his past: the death of his wife in childbirth, which led him to give up his practice as a brain surgeon to become a gynecologist).

Indeed, the dirty little truth about "life together" (in French, "la cohabitation")is that it's a precarious and unstable equilibrium requiring us to keep our mouths shut for much of the time about what we know. So "truth" and "cohabitation" are at odds, and that tension has the potential to generate explosive situations which reveal human beings at their worst: namely, self-centered, petty individuals who care not a wit what harm they do as long as they can satisfy their desire to vent their disdain and resentment towards others.

The vision of the world in Clouzot's film does not exactly inspire a call to action to make the world a better place to live in. On the other hand, Clouzot may well have believed that we must know the world in all its wretchedness if we wish to change it for the better.

In the small French village of St. Robin a reserved country doctor receives a poison-pen accusing him of practicing abortions to relieve mothers of unwilling burdens. Soon everyone else starts receiving similar letters, accusing each and everyone of dark secrets. Paranoia and mass hysteria set in as people begin spying each other looking for the culprit. Innocents are slandered and persecuted without evidence. Violence ensues, one man commits suicide. And yet the poison-pen letters, always signed by The Raven, continue to arrive.

This is a slow, carefully-built suspense movie in which the identity of The Raven isn't important (and for my part the revelation was ultimately disappointing); Henri-Georges Clouzot is more interested in the human drama, in the relationships between the characters, in the way intrigue, rumors, hidden hatreds infect and destroy a community. It's a misanthropic movie, showing how easily people can become irrational and violent and suggesting there's no cure for this, that it is embedded in our nature. Clouzot, working during the Nazi occupation of France, had many reasons to be depressed about Mankind.

As the study of a community it is interesting. As a thriller I found it dull. Many of the qualities that made me enjoy his other thriller Les Diaboliques is also here, but something didn't click for me. The ending, the moralist punishment of The Raven, seemed so rushed and contrary to the rest of this bleak movie, that I wonder if Clouzot was forced to put it there. I had the same feeling about Les Diaboliques.

Slow and sometimes dull, it's an interesting thriller, but not one I'd like to watch again any time soon.

This was the first of Clouzot's great masterpieces for the screen. It is simply amazing that he managed to pull it off under the noses of the German occupiers, indeed through one of their own production units. The film is a massive frontal attack on the craven Vichy mentality, of turning in one's neighbours, and of the 'informant society' which grows up under any occupying force in any country, but which thrived especially well in the hothouse atmosphere of the typical small French town. Of course, today, we are told that everybody was in the Resistance, but if you add them all up, the Resistance would have been greater than the population of France! In fact, the Resistance was tiny. President Mitterand claimed to have been in the Resistance, but he was later proved to have been a cringeing Vichy boot-licker. If the lies extend as high as the President of France, you can imagine how far and wide they spread lower down. In this film, a series of anonymous poison pen letters, written by an extremely well-informed but clearly deranged person, begin to flood the town. Eventually, hundreds of them are received. No one knows who is doing this, but vicious infighting takes place as a result of their 'information', reprisals and revenge are taken without reflection or hesitation, pretty much par for the course in wartime France. Everybody is inclined to believe everything fed to their feverish and vicious imaginations by the unknown letter writer, who calls himself or herself 'Le Corbeau' ('The Raven'). The whole society is set against itself and starts tearing itself apart on the basis of flimsy and unsubtantiated allegations from an unknown person. Clouzot shows the merciless progression of this herd insanity, even as he lived in the midst of it in his occupied country. When the Nazis realized what a cuckoo had been in their next, they refused to release the film. After the Liberation, the film was still prohibited and Clouzot blacklisted. The fact is that Clouzot had lifted the rock under which all the creepy-crawlies were living and had exposed them to view, and no one could take it, either of left or of right. The fact that he had done it in an entirely nonpolitical way made it even worse, since his target was not any doctrine or dogma but the weaknesses of human nature itself. He not only touched a raw nerve, he twisted it in his fist and made everyone scream with the agony of exposure. This is one of the most despairingly cynical films ever made, a brilliant, horrifying vision of human folly and madness. Clouzot really should have made a film about the Tulip Mania! One must keep in mind that France was the country where the most attention had been called to crowd behaviour and mass insanity, in Gustave Le Bon's famous book 'Psychologie des Foules' (1895, translated into English in 1896 as 'The Crowd', a book prominently reissued in France in 1947 when it was safe to do so). Clouzot and all French intellectuals were well aware of the issues of crowd madness raised by Le Bon half a century earlier, which had made a deep impact of French intellectual life. If Le Bon had been a filmmaker, he might have made 'Le Corbeau' to prove his points. Interwoven with the black and disturbing theme are various stories of corruption going on within the town, including the taking of opium, adulterous liaisons and betrayals, and a seething ferment of vicious living. One poor boy is driven to suicide in his hospital bed by one of the poison pen letters. This film is spell-binding in its portrayal of the underside of human psychology, and of how easily the dark forces erupt.

The story of a small French provincial town infected by the mass hysteria of suspicion, spying, and hatred caused by the damning letters revealing the guilty secrets of all citizens and always signed "Le Corbeau" (The Raven) is an absolutely brilliant film. It is incredibly clever, involving, and extremely dark and leaves very little hope regarding the human nature and its motivations. The word is the most dangerous and the deadliest of weapons, and a gun, a knife, or a poison only finish the evil deed that always starts with the words. The humans are very creative in choosing the right words that will hurt and infuriate the fellow human being and start the unstoppable nuclear reaction of hatred, intolerance, and violence. H.G. Cluozot had difficulties working in France after he had made "Le Corbeau" in 1943 which was produced by the German company and later judged by French as a piece of anti-French propaganda. It took writers such as Jean Cocteau and actors such as Louis Jouvet, an admirer of Clouzot's work, to recognize the powerful subtext to Cluozot's controversial masterpiece.

After establishing a small, bleak town the camera moves to open farmland before closing in on three old crones. After a moment a man emerges from a building with bloody hands which he proceeds to wash in a bucket. If this makes you think of Macbeth you're either 1) reasonably erudite, 2) the kind of academic incapable of saying a given film is good, bad, or indifferent without masking opinion beneath layers of jargon - diegesis, semiology, metonymic, semioclasm, syntagma, morpheme, etc -, 3) the kind of person who ENJOYS reading that kind of academic or 4) Me, an ordinary Joe who read a book once and can't quite get over it. In his great play 'The Big Knife' Clifford Odets had leading character Charley Cass say "Macbeth is an allegory, one by one he kills his better selves" and if we pursue my Scottish play analogy we could argue that the Raven's poison pen is killing the townspeople's better selves in a similar fashion. It was, of course, Lady Macbeth who felt compelled to wash the blood off her hands but in St Robin the blood is definitely on the hands of Dr Germain (Pierre Fresnay) both physically as in the opening scene where the blood belongs to a woman patient and metaphorically when, by remaining aloof and indifferent to the accusations of which he is in part guilty, he encourages the Raven to continue the campaign until very real deaths occur. This is a great film any way you look at it and the fact that there are so many ways to do so only adds to its appeal.