From the moment French comedian Raimu emerges through a hole in the floorboards into Gribouille, it is clear that this is going to be his film: a showcase for his expressive, dour face and his man-of-the-people paunch. Raimu plays a father, husband and bicycle shop proprietor chosen to sit on the jury at the trial of Michèle Morgan for the murder of her wealthy lover. In Marc Allégret's elaborate trial sequence, it is bourgeois “justice” that is on trial--with each of the director's points reflected in the face of Juror No.5, Raimu, who either sustains or overrules it with a lift of his brow or a twitch of his mouth. The film thereafter becomes the story of a man who becomes involved and pays the consequences: taking the acquitted Morgan into his home, he suffers a hostile family and community reaction. A well-crafted entertainment film comparable to the '30s Hollywood studio product, Gribouille has an underlying presence and concern that makes it all the more compelling: in every way, Raimu is the exemplary Frenchman, down to his foibles and flaws; “gribouille” is translated in the subtitles as “meddler,” but the film's English language distribution title--“Heart of Paris"--is more to the point. Michèle Morgan's career was launched with this film when she was 16 years old. If her ivory face reads as more passive than enigmantic (she remains quiet as she is condemned both in and out of court on the basis of how many lovers she has had in her life), one can perhaps credit Allégret with using it to underscore his point about the delicate nature of justice. (JB)