Jacques Prévert's dramatic script combined with Grémillon's concern for characterization made Remorques a classic in France. Jean Gabin stars as a tugboat captain whose first love is the sea, and who seldom sees his invalid wife (Madeleine Renaud). When he rescues a woman (Michèle Morgan) during a storm, she becomes the object of his passion, though he allows his wife to die convinced of his love for her. The outbreak of World War II prevented the storm scene, for Grémillon an essential documentary sequence, from being shot as scheduled at the end of September 1939. Substitute scenes were shot during the Spring of 1940, and the film was released in 1941. Film historian Georges Sadoul, who calls Grémillon France's “greatest representative of the realistic tendency,” considers Remorques “a remarkable, beautifully photographed film.” (in Dictionary of Films and French Film)