Directed by Jean Renoir • 1936 • France
Starring René Lefèvre, Florelle, Jules Berry

An oft-overlooked jewel from Jean Renoir, this exuberant ode to working-class solidarity is both one of the director’s most thoroughly charming works as well as one of his most sly political statements. Channeling the collectivist, utopian spirit of the Popular Front movement, THE CRIME OF MONSIEUR LANGE combines comedy with thriller elements to tell the story of a publishing house where the exploited employees form a collective following the sudden death of their tyrannical boss. When the supposedly dead man unexpectedly returns, a mild-mannered writer of Western serials (René Lefèvre) takes matters into his own hands.