The Road to Shame

When Béatrice (Estella Blain) decides to spend an evening with a group of wealthy playboys, her working class fiancé, Pierre (Robert Hossein), follows her and exposes a gang of organized criminals. Intercepted by henchmen, Pierre is threatened, beaten, and framed for murder. But he refuses to give up, and remains determined to infiltrate the criminal stronghold, liberate Béatrice from the sex traffickers, and clear himself of murder. French genre filmmakers of the late 1950s, such as Édouard Molinaro, have typically been overshadowed by those of the nouvelle vague. But this exquisite restoration of The Road to Shame (Des femmes disparaissent), supported by the Centre National du Cinema, allows for the overdue appreciation of this fine example post-noir European hardboiled cinema.