Hotel du Nord was a surprisingly unseasonal film to be offered as a Christmas attraction at a New York art house in 1940, but new French product was hard to come by in those days. The author based his original novel on experience he underwent by growing up in the hotel that his parents operated, and this underlying realism may account for it being more gritty and less poetic than the usual Marcel Carné film. (The absence of Jean Gabin may also be a factor in this.) Yet with all its sordid underpinnings, it is finally a slightly more hopeful film than Carné's Le Jour se Lève, which followed a year later, and which reflected the almost passive pessimism brought on by the inevitability of World War Two. Hotel du Nord has long been unseen in this country, and this print, brought in specially from Europe, is untitled, though a synopsis/translation will be provided. Quite apart from the superb cast, all of the writing and other creative talents-Jaubert on music for example, Trauner's art direction-are a stimulating reminder of the great days of French cinema. William K. Everson