Sat 1 Jul 2017
MIKE NEVINS on French Mystery Writer STANISLAS-ANDRE STEEMAN.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Columns , Mystery movies[15] Comments
by Francis M. Nevins
Ever heard of Stanislas-André Steeman? Thought not. In Anglo-American crime fiction his name is all but unknown, but in Europe and especially France he’s considered one of the most important exponents of the roman policier. Like his far better known older contemporary Georges Simenon, he was Belgian by birth, born in Liège in 1908, five years after the creator of Maigret.
Simenon launched the Maigret series early in life, but Steeman’s first books, written in collaboration with Hermann Sartini (whose nom de plume was Sintair) were published in 1928, a year before the first Maigrets and when Steeman was 20 years old at most, maybe even 19. After five novels the partnership broke up, and from then on Steeman was on his own, turning out more than 30 policiers before his death in 1970 at age 62.
Only two of his novels made it across the Atlantic, with the 1931 SIX HOMMES MORTS translated (by the wife of poet Stephen Vincent Benét) as SIX DEAD MEN (Farrar & Rinehart, 1932) and 1932’s LA NUIT DU 12 AU 13 appearing in English as THE NIGHT OF THE 12th-13th (Lippincott, 1933). After that he became a nonentity in English but he was already a celebrity in France, having won the Grand Prix du Roman d’Aventures for SIX HOMMES MORTS.
Steeman’s principal detective character was Inspector Wenceslas Vorobeitchik (the Russian word for sparrow), usually called Monsieur Wens, but on the basis of what I’ve found on the Web, it’s impossible to determine how many of Steeman’s novels he appeared in. Most of what we in the U.S. know about his work we owe to Xavier Lechard’s superlative “At the Villa Rose†website, which I highly recommend. Lechard calls Steeman “one of the greatest authors of the French Golden Age, and arguably one of the greatest mystery writers of all times….â€
Unlike Simenon, whose goal was to go beyond the conventions of classical detective fiction, Steeman loved them and loved even more to play with them. SIX DEAD MEN for example is a Tontine story of the sort we tend to associate with Ellery Queen. The fatal six agree that whoever outlives the others will inherit most of the men’s money, then the group starts dying off.
A few years after its appearance in English translation, this novel was the basis of a low-budget “quota quickie†movie, THE RIVERSIDE MURDER (Fox British, 1935), directed by Albert Parker, with Basil Sydney starring as Inspector Philip Winton (obviously the Brit counterpart of Monsieur Wens) and, in one of his earliest film roles, Alastair Sim playing his sergeant. Featured in the cast are Ian Fleming (no, not that Ian Fleming) and Tom Helmore, who more than twenty years later played the Iago figure in Hitchcock’s VERTIGO.
Thanks to my friend Tony Williams and his forthcoming essay on French film noir during the years of Nazi occupation, I know more about Steeman’s involvement with the movie industry of his adopted country than can be learned on the Web.
The French version of the same Steeman novel, LE DERNIER DES SIX (1941) was directed by Georges Lacombe from a screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907-1977), who went on to become a director himself and indeed to become celebrated as the Hitchcock of France. I don’t know whether the Monsieur Wens of Steeman’s novel or the Inspector Winton of the 1935 British film had a sex partner, but in this version as played by Pierre Fresnay he has a mistress, portrayed by Suzy Delair, who was Clouzot’s mistress at the time, and according to Tony Williams, the pair operate as a sort of Nick-and-Nora couple.
The movie must have been a hit with French audiences of the Occupation era, for it was soon followed up by Clouzot’s first film as a director, L’ASSASSIN HABITE AU 21 (1942), again starring Fresnay and Delair and with a screenplay by Clouzot and Steeman, whose 1939 novel of the same name was never translated into English, but it takes place in London and involves a serial killer who murders his victims in the fog, leaving behind a calling card in the name of “Mr. Smith.â€
Since England in 1942 was at war with the Nazis, Clouzot inserted Fresnay and Delair from LE DERNIER DES SIX as Wens and his mistress Mila Malou and shifted the locale to France and the killer’s nom de guerre to Monsieur Durand. According to Tony Williams, the serial killer in the film turns out to be three men, former schoolmates each of whom believes himself to be a sort of Raskolnikov.
At the end of the film, says Williams, “all three master criminals have their hands in the air when they are surrounded by the police.†Wens stands opposite the ringleader of the three and, in order to strike a match on his neck, has him lower his right hand, while his left remains in the air as if he’s giving the traditional Nazi salute. How could Hitler’s censors have missed this zinger? If L’ASSASSIN sounds like a serious film noir, Williams insists that this time Fresnay and Delair form “an even more excessive screwball comedic partnership†than in LE DERNIER DES SIX.
The end of World War II did not end the connection between Steeman and Clouzot. The only new Steeman novel published during the war had been LEGITIME DEFENSE (1942). A few years after the liberation of France, Clouzot took this novel as the basis for his film QUAI DES ORFEVRES (1947), which Xavier Lechard describes as “arguably the best adaptation of Steeman’s work and one of the summits of French cinema.â€
Steeman wasn’t pleased with the result, principally because Clouzot “changed the guilty party….†Having worked on the screenplay, perhaps he was better satisfied with MYSTERE A SHANGHAI (1950), directed by Roger Blanc and based on the second and last Steeman novel to be translated into English, LA NUIT DE 12 AU 13.
Steeman continued to write crime novels until his death but apparently they were far removed from his earlier books. Monsieur Wens returned in POKER D’ENFER (HELL’S POKER, 1955) and SIX HOMMES À TUER (SIX MEN TO KILL, 1956) but as a sort of shape-shifter, with the principal puzzle being which character in the story is he. Steeman’s final novel, AUTOPSIE D’UN VIOL (AUTOPSY OF A RAPE, 1971), is described by Lechard as “a courtroom mystery set in the United States†and displaying “a grim worldview with none of the author’s previous flippantness.â€
Although I’ve read a lot of Simenon and most of the Swedish team of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö and some of Friedrich Duerrenmatt and a few others, most of the mysteries I’ve consumed in the 60-odd years since I discovered Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan have been written in English. I’ve never read Steeman but what I’ve learned about him while researching this column leads me to think I might have missed a bet. Perhaps we all have.
July 1st, 2017 at 5:03 pm
Thanks, Mike. A fascinating overview of an author totally unknown to me. I have found one copy of one of his books online that’s in English, and that one’s from an Australian bookseller, and with the postage, too pricey for me (around $65).
July 2nd, 2017 at 1:00 am
I thought I’d posted this earlier, but for some reason, I must have done something wrong. This is the best bibliography I’ve been able to put together for Steeman. Not all may be crime fiction. I wish I could read French better than I do!
L’assassin habite au 21
Six Hommes Morts
Quai des Orfèvres
L’Infaillible Silas Lord
Il condannato muore alle ci
Crimes à vendre.
Que Personne Ne Sorte
Le Mannequin assassiné
La Morte Survit Au 13
La nuit du 12 au 13
Autopsie d’un viol
La Maison Des Veilles
Quai des Orfèvres
Haute Tension
L’ennemi Sans Visage
1 dans 3
Tome 2
Crimen en un castillo
Légitime défense
Poker d’enfer
July 1st, 2017 at 10:51 pm
And to satisfy possible interest on someone’s part (and because I went looking anyway), here’s the list of Steeman’s TV and movie credits, in the usual reverse IMDb order:
Le trajet de la foudre (1994) (TV) (novel)
“Les grands détectives” (1 episode, 1975)
– L’inspecteur Wens: Six hommes morts (1975) TV episode (novel)
Le mannequin assassiné (1970) (TV)
L’ennemi sans visage (1970) (TV) (novel)
Le démon de Sainte Croix (1970) (TV) (novel)
Que personne ne sorte (1964) (novel “Six hommes à tuer”)
Inside a Girls’ Dormitory (1953) (novel “18 Fantômes”)
… aka “Dortoir des grandes” – France (original title)
… aka “Girls’ Dormitory” – , International (English title) (imdb display title)
Full House (1952) (story) (segment “Mort dans l’ascenseur, Le”)
… aka “Brelan d’as” – France (original title)
Mystère à Shanghai (1950) (novel “La Nuit du 13”)
Le furet (1950) (adaptation) (dialogue) (novel “Crimes à vendre”)
La muerte camina en la lluvia (1948) (novel “L’assassin habite au 21”)
Le mannequin assassiné (1948) (writer)
… aka “The Murdered Model” – Belgium (English title)
Quai des Orfèvres (1947) (novel “Legitime Defense”)
… aka “Jenny Lamour” – USA (theatrical title)
… aka “Quay of the Goldsmiths” – USA (literal English title)
Les atouts de Monsieur Wens (1947) (novel)
… aka “Mr. Wens Plays His Trumps” – Belgium (English title)
L’ennemi sans visage (1946) (novel)
The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942) (adaptation) (as S.A. Steemann) (novel) (as Mr. S.A. Steemann)
… aka “L’assassin habite… au 21” – France (original title)
… aka “The Murderer Lives at #21” – USA (alternative transliteration)
The Last One of the Six (1941) (novel “6 Hommes morts”)
… aka “Le dernier des six” – France (original title)
The Riverside Murder (1935) (novel “Les Six Hommes Morts”) (as André Steeman)
July 2nd, 2017 at 5:25 am
This is a very informative article on Steeman. It makes me eager to read some of his books – which I’ve never done.
Unfortunately, the only Steeman novel in a Michigan library is in Russian, a language I don’t speak at all.
May I offer a dissenting view on Henri-Georges Clouzot, a director I just don’t “get”?
Quai des Orfèvres is easily available on DVD. A single viewing suggests it falls in the category of films that are “interesting and occasionally well made, but not good enough to recommend”.
“L’Assassin habite au 21” has a case of the cutes. It seems labored.
I’ll keep watching Clouzot. Maybe eventually understanding will dawn. So far, no sale!
Clouzot is a famous director. He is included in every history of French cinema. His films are far more famous than say, “Mozambique”. But I don’t “get” them.
My favorite French films, a list with 150 films by over 50 directors:
http://mikegrost.com/best100.htm#French
July 2nd, 2017 at 2:14 pm
I have not yet looked into which of Steeman’s films are available on DVD, even on the collectors’ market. I’d need to have time subtitled, though. My only exposure to learning French was a summer course in how to read the language, part of the requirements for a PhD in math at the time.
July 2nd, 2017 at 3:52 pm
I’m in exactly the save status as Steve: I learned French (without achieving fluency) as a math major in college, and can only watch French films with subtitles.
I saw “L’Assassin habite au 21†on cable TV, probably TCM.
“Quai des Orfèvres” is on DVD, with subtitles.
I’m no expert on French film or literature.
And of course, maybe these two films are much better than I thought at the time!
July 2nd, 2017 at 4:01 pm
PS I used the French titles, because that is how these films are typically known, even in the USA. The US DVD of “Quai des Orfèvres†is titled…“Quai des Orfèvresâ€!
I THINK “Quai des Orfèvres†is a street, where the French police were headquartered. It was famous, the way Scotland Yard was in Britain.
August 8th, 2017 at 4:27 pm
I’m sorry to come late at the party but for some reason I’m seeing this post only now. I want to thank Mr. Nevins for his kind words about my blog; I had no idea I had such prestigious readers (sometimes I wonder if I have readers at all!)
While contributing to the screenplay of LA NUIT DU 12 AU 13 Steeman was no more happy with the result than he was with previous or further adaptations of his works. He voiced his grievances in an open letter that was published first in the French edition of EQMM then as a preface to the second edition of LA NUIT.
Re Mike’s feelings about Clouzot, while being a fan I readily admit that he is not an easy filmmaker to like and has his detractors even in France. The film of his to see for the GA fan is his 1943 masterpiece LE CORBEAU, a village whodunit that is also a thinly veiled parable on then-occupied France. You may want to read Martin Edwards’s review on his (excellent blog)
http://doyouwriteunderyourownname.blogspot.fr/2016/04/le-corbeau-film-review.html
August 8th, 2017 at 4:29 pm
Steeman’s French Wikipedia page has a complete bibliography even including stage plays that I had never heard of!
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislas-Andr%C3%A9_Steeman
August 8th, 2017 at 4:42 pm
Thanks for the juicy tidbits of information, Xavier, and the links. I’ll make sure Mike sees then ASAP!
November 5th, 2017 at 10:30 pm
A couple of plugs:
http://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-clouzot-for-christmas-quai-des.html
http://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2012/04/20000-views-and-six-dead-men-by.html
November 5th, 2017 at 11:23 pm
Thanks for the links, Curtis. Feel free to plug posts on your blog any time. In this case, especially so, as I seem to have missed both of them.
July 13th, 2020 at 7:33 am
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August 28th, 2020 at 8:47 am
Hi
I wondered if you knew of any French/European Golden Age crime writers who had female detectives?
Thanks