Port of Shadows (DVD)

Port of Shadows (Le Quai Des Brumes) is director Marcel Carne’s (Children of Paradise) controversial adaptation of the Pierre Mac Orlan novel of the same name. Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean (Jean Gabin, Touchez Pas Au Grisbi), an army deserter looking for another chance at life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, when acts of both revenge and kindness turn him into front-page news. Port of Shadows starkly portrays an underworld of lonely souls wrestling with their own destinies, a quintessential example of poetic realism, one of the classics of the golden age of French cinema. Co-starring the blue-eyed phenomenon Michèle Morgan (The Chase) in her first major role and the menacing Michel Simon (The Train), with stunning cinematography by Eugen Schüfftan (The Hustler).