Martin Roumagnac

Martin Roumagnac, a building contractor in a provincial town, becomes fixated on Blanche Ferrand, a stylish and calculating widow newly arrived there. To impress her he builds her a villa, and it ruins him financially. Blanche will not choose between Martin and the wealthy consul De Laubry, while the town’s gossip slowly closes in on both of them. Georges Lacombe’s film remains the only one Marlene Dietrich and Jean Gabin made together. The two had grown close in America during the war, and this was their return to the screen afterwards. It did not draw the attention expected, and Dietrich gave up the idea of settling in France and went back to the United States. A melodrama with a dark ending, about how the gossip of a small town closes around a person.