Set entirely within the confines of an isolated inn off season and a nearby beach cut off from the world by rain and cold, Such a Pretty Little Beach is a masterwork in the best film noir tradition: it grips by the sheer cohesion of its construction. Gérard Philipe evokes a remarkable tension between suspicion and sympathy as a melancholy young man who becomes a curiosity to the inn's residents and regular guests--characters curious enough in themselves. Yves Allégret, as he does in Manèges, creates a narrative that takes place in several time zones while never leaving “the present”; here, however, sans flashback or monologue, the story unfolds of the young man's childhood as a public assistance ward at this very inn; of his mysterious involvement with an aging, famous actress; and, slowly, of the psychological implications of his return to the site of his youth.
Yves Allégret's films of the late Forties are among the best film noir made anywhere: highly atmospheric, they recall the mood of “poetic fatalism” of the late Thirties, but in narrating their stories of crime and retribution the Allégret noir avoids all arty flourishes and eccentricities in building tension and in pitilessly revealing the dark side of human behavior. Allégret's best-known film noir are the two which starred his then-wife Simone Signoret--Dedee D'Anvers (1947) and Manèges (1949)--but many critics consider this rarely shown work (released in this country as Riptide) to be his most accomplished.