The Spider and the Fly

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The Spider and the Fly

A committed and cunning detective (Portman) is out to catch his nemesis and a man he respects - sophisticated burglar, Rolfe. During his investigations he falls in love with Rolfe's confederate (Gray), who in turn worships Rolfe. This triangle of love and crime comes to a head when WWI breaks out and Rolfe's skills could now become very useful. Enjoyable thriller / drama focussing on 3 people who rather like / love each other, but how will it all get resolved. The characters are perhaps a bit cold and underdeveloped but the acting, particularly from Portman is strong and it has a playful, sometimes witty script.

Sadly though he was an alcoholic which affected his career and cut short his life.This is a rather slow paced film but it does manage to hold ones attention.It is notable that not one actor affects a French accent and they are all smoking all the time.

THE SPIDER AND THE FLY is one of those obscure and dated productions that never really did it for me despite the interest of a premise and setting (France at the outbreak of World War 1). Eric Portman plays a detective who has an unusual relationship with the master criminal played by Guy Rolfe. Despite the presence of a criminal element in the movie, this is more of a dialogue-heavy and character-focused production whose emphasis is thematic rather than concrete or involved. Long stretches go by where little really happens and come the end I rather wondered what the point of it all was.

Eric Portman is a French police inspector who is used to committing the professional bank robber Guy Rolfe, he has done that a number of times and knows him well, so when in 1916 in the middle of the war a special burglar job is needed in the German legation in Berne, Switzerland, Eric recommends Rolfe, who gets the job. The complication is that they both love the same woman, a certain Madeleine (Nadia Gray), a fact which involves some unforeseen circumstances. The story is very thought-provoking, there is a toch of tragedy to it as well, Portman and Rolfe are both at their best, and they team very well together.

Usually, a safe cracker and a police constable won't become allies let alone friends, but in the case of by the books detective Eric Portman and dapper "Raffles" like thief Guy Rolfe, their differences bring them together in this elegant thriller set in Paris prior to World War I. A stretch in prison for Rolfe is interrupted when war strikes and Portman suggests Rolfe for a secret mission. Torn between them is the pretty Nadia Gray who loves Rolfe but is desired by Portman. Superb art direction, some nail biting hijinks (one involving a climb up a tall building) and witty dialog makes this above average with a commaradarie between the two actors guiding the film to a unique and unexpected partnership.

Robert Hamer's next film after 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' was this super-stylish precursor to the same director's 'Father Brown' five years later; which feels like an adaptation of a novel but was actually an original screenplay. Continuing his fascination with criminality and deception while studying the bond that develops between a gentleman thief and a detective against a French backdrop, in his tragically sparce career before he drank himself to death aged just 52 he also made two other films with French settings, one of them even called 'To Paris with Love'. It also anticipates 'The Dirty Dozen' and numerous other war films in it's proposition that criminals constitute a valuable resource in wartime. In answer to an earlier correspondent, Guy Rolfe's career never really took off because health problems made him difficult to work with; although he fortunately enjoyed a late career resurgence in the 'Puppetmaster' series.