Three Days to Live [Trois jours à vivre] ** (1957, Daniel Gélin, Jeanne Moreau, Lino Ventura, Georges Flamant) – Classic Movie Review 14,025

Director Gilles Grangier’s 1957 French psychological crime thriller Three Days to Live [Trois jours à vivre] is based on a novel by Peter Vanett and stars Daniel Gélin, Jeanne Moreau and Lino Ventura.

Daniel Gélin stars as struggling young French actor Simon Belin, who is touring the French provinces with his stage company. Although talented, he has never been given the opportunity to shine on stage because Bérimont (Roland Armontel), a camp and hammy matinée idol long past his prime, gets the lead roles. The one light in his life is sweet young Jeanne Fortin (Jeanne Moreau), a great seamstress and a mediocre actress, who shares his dressing room and becomes his girlfriend.

One day, Simon witnesses a murder in the street. Pressed by the press, police, his agent and of his own need for publicity and stardom, he identifies a suspect Ferrari (Lino Ventura) actually knowing that he is not the real killer.

Overnight he is a sensation, and the camp theatre boss Charlie Bianchi (Aimé Clariond) replaces a furious Bérimont with Simon as the star of the play. But Ferrari, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, escapes and phones to threaten him with three days to live. Local police Inspector Segalier (Georges Flamant) is assigned to try to save Simon while the Paris police try to arrest Ferrari before he leaves the country.

To be honest, this thriller plot makes the film seem much more exciting than it actually is. It is not exciting at all, but maybe that is not its purpose. It’s a character study, and a romance really, odd enough, but maybe not fascinating enough, though Michel Audiard’s dialogue does maintain the interest, more than Peter Vanett’s story. And, as the screenplay tells us, it’s the actors’ job to make the script work, an, in this case, that’s exactly what Jeanne Moreau and Lino Ventura do.

Three Days to Live [Trois jours à vivre] is a moderate French psychological crime thriller boosted by the appearances of Jeanne Moreau and Lino Ventura, who make a bit more of it than the material deserves. It’s not that much of a story, quite contrived and thin, and it gets stuck in the same groove for too long, before delivering a rushed and highly improbable, unsatisfying ending. It’s especially nice to see the young Moreau, and she has a lot to do, and steals the limelight from main star Daniel Gélin, who is stuck in a very unsympathetic role of liar and coward, but still has to come out smelling of roses. Gélin just doesn’t have the allure or charisma to do that, and he looks too mature (at 36) and too canny for this kind of role. Nevertheless, he takes the bitter-sweet part entirely seriously, quite dramatically. It’s a blessing that the film takes its story seriously, apart from some slack light ‘comedy’ and the campy stage and theatre people. Roland Armontel as the hammy matinée idol, Aimé Clariond as the camp theatre boss, Georges Flamant as the police Inspector and Marcel Pérès as the theatre owner all have semi-comedic roles, but treat them just seriously enough not to be irritating.

Shooting-wise, there are too many interiors and there is too little outside work, as usual for this era, and it mostly looks very ordinary, though the location work in Le Havre and Rouen gives it another real lift. Film itself in great condition after its restoration.

Joseph Kosma’s score is all over the place, some of it hopelessly out of place, some way over-emphatic, but occasionally absolutely ideal. But it’s a bad sign when audiences are listening to background scores.

It was shot at the Saint-Maurice Studios in Paris on sets designed by art director Roger Briaucourt, and on location in Le Havre and Rouen.

It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 14 August 1957 and was released in France on 12 March 1958.

The cast are Daniel Gélin as Simon Belin, Jeanne Moreau as Jeanne Fortin, Lino Ventura as Lino Ferrari, Georges Flamant as Inspector Segalier, Albert Augier as Dédé, Aimé Clariond as Charlie Bianchi, Roland Armontel as Alexandre Bérimont, Joëlle Bernard as Mauricette, Moustache as Davros, Robert Rollis as Lucien Morisot, Evelyne Rey as Bélina, Jannick Arvel as Thérese, Jacques Marin as gendarme, Jean Toulout as Président des Assises, Jean-Marie Rivière as comédien, Jo Peignot as café patron, Jean Degrave as Réceptionniste de l’hôtel, Marcel Pérès as theatre owner, José Quaglio as acteur, François Joux as Secrétaire du commissaire.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 14,025

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