Lacombe, Georges

(1902-1990)

   Director. Georges Lacombe began his career in film in 1924 as an assistant to René Clair. He worked with Clair on films such as Les Deux timides (1929) and Sous les toits de Paris (1930), and during the same period, he directed one film of his own, the avant-garde documentary La Zone (1928), about garment workers in Paris.

   Lacombe began directing on his own in 1930. The following year he made his first feature-length film, Un coup de téléphone (1931), starring Colette Darfeuil and Paulette Dubost. From 1931 until 1958, Lacombe worked consistently, directing more than twenty films of various genres. While he is not remembered particularly as one of the great directors or one of the great innovators, he was a solid and fairly popular director whose work was consistent, if rather varied.

   Among the films that Lacombe directed are Ce Cochon de Morin (1932), adapted from the story by Honoré de Balzac, La Femme invisible (1933), Jeunesse (1934), Derrière la façade (1939), which he codirected with Yves Mirande, Elles étaient douze femmes (1940), Le Dernier des six (1941), which launched the career of director Henri-Georges Clouzot, who wrote the screenplay, Montmartre-sur-seine (1941), which stars Edith Piaf, Le Journal tombe à cinq heures (1942), L'Escalier sans fin (1943), Le Pays sans étoiles (1946), Martin Roumagnac (1946), La Nuit est mon royaume (1951), La Lumière d'en face (1955), and Cargaison blanche (1958).

   If Lacombe was not a great director, he was able to draw many of the greatest stars of the day. He worked frequently with Pierre Fresnay, for example. Other actors who appear in his films include Michèle Morgan, Michel Simon, Jules Berry, Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoir, Brigitte Bardot, and Jean Gabin. Although critics would probably not note their appearances in Lacombe's films as those that defined the careers of these actors, Lacombe was consistently able to give meaningful roles in solid film, and the performances are, therefore, equally solid.

   Lacombe retired from cinema in 1958. He made a number of television films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He gave up directing altogether after 1973.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins