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List Price: $24.95Amazon.com's Price: $22.49 You Save: $2.46 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0738329030223
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Kino Video
Manufacturer: Kino Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Kino Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 22, 2003
Running Time: 100 minutes
Sales Rank: 46558
Studio: Kino Video
Theatrical Release Date: July 19, 1946
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Suave, sardonic George Sanders eases through one of his most perfectly suited roles in this sly Douglas Sirk comedy, based on the (highly questionable) remembrances of real-life French rascal turned respected lawman and author Vidoq. Sanders plays his aristocratic thief with a blasé attitude and bemused smile. Born in a jail (his home for most of his life, as it turns out), he cons his way up from the gutter to high society. He rechristens himself with a name purloined from a fancy graveyard headstone and lands a position as the Paris chief of police after an elaborate display of Sherlock Holmesian deduction uncovers a cache of jewels stolen from his patron's house (jewels he stole himself, of course). It puts him in the perfect place to plot his biggest caper ever: cleaning out the Bank of Paris. Akim Tamiroff plays his croaking sidekick (a frog to Sanders's prince of crime, or perhaps more accurately a dragon to the sneaky St. George), and Gene Lockhart is his nemesis, the disgraced former chief of police who emerges as less a figure of fun than a sad clown. Sirk shot this little gem on a low budget almost belied by the tiny but richly realized sets, beautifully designed settings that create a Paris in miniature. His Continental wit and Sanders's droll delivery and impeccable manners add a knowing wink to the production. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Amusing And Clever
"In crime as in love," says Francois Eugene Vidocq, "there are only those who do and those who don't dare."
This is the amusing, clever story of Vidocq (George Sanders), who was born in a Paris prison in 1775 and spent the next 30 years as a cad, a thief and a relatively successful criminal. And then he became Paris' chief of police and spent the rest of his life catching criminals. It's based on a true story. His epiphany came, according to the movie, through the love of a virtuous ... Read More
Rating:  - Sanders is superb...but...
The often-reliable Leonard Maltin says this is a "delightful romance" and that Sanders is "superb." Maltin must have confused this movie with something else. Sanders is snide and droll and superb, as usual, - you can imagine his delivery of the line regarding adultery, "Sometimes the chains of matrimony are so heavy they have to be carried by three," -but dull, wooden and dated describe this movie more accurately. The storyline itself, an autobiography with Sanders as a suave jewel thief, Francois ... Read More
Rating: - A real gem
This little known and seemingly underappreciated movie is actually a sophisticated piece of movie art. I had expected a journeyman effort from Douglas Sirk, but found instead a master working at the peak of his powers. The subject matter seems light on the surface, but probes questions of identity and personal responsibility. The slipperiness of the character of George Sanders' Vidoq is a foil to others' distorted views of themselves. Many of Sirk's tropes are present, including an abundance of ... Read More
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