Bad Seed (Mauvais Graine) is a 1934 film from France co-directed by Alexander Esway and Billy Wilder.
A young man, Henri Pasquier, is a wastrel who likes driving fast and sponging off of his father, a doctor. At the beginning of the film Dr. Pasquier, who is tired of this state of affairs, sells Henri's car and tells Henri that he is cut off.
Henri, who very much dislikes his father's suggestion to get a job, walks out and is walking around the streets of Paris when he sees his car where the new owners parked it—with the key in the ignition. Henri impulsively steals the car, but almost immediately finds himself being followed by three tough-looking men, who eventually corner him. They turn out to be part of an organized car theft ring which steals cars, disguises them with new paint jobs and license plates, and resells them.
Still unwilling to get a job, Henri joins the gang of car thieves. He makes a friend of an immature young gang member named Jean, and finds himself attracted to Jean's sister Jeanette, the gang's Honey Pot. But when Henri starts to get insistent about his fellow thieves getting more of the proceeds from the racket, the chief of the gang starts looking for reasons to get rid of him.
Danielle Darrieux, who was only 16 years old, plays Jeanette. This was the first directing credit for Billy Wilder, who made the movie during his short stay in Paris, between fleeing Nazi Germany and going to Hollywood. Wilder went to work in the USA as a screenwriter and wouldn't direct another movie until The Major and the Minor in 1942. There is no connection between this film and 1954 novel The Bad Seed or any of the many adaptations of that book.
Tropes:
- Answer Cut: Jean, who is trying to recruit Henri to the gang, says that they have one woman. Henri says "A woman?" Cut to Jeanette, out on the street, fixing her makeup and then looking straight at the camera.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jean is shot by a cop as he and Henri escape from the garage. But Dr. Pasquier doesn't turn his son in, and Jenri and Jeanette make it to a boat and head for Casablanca and freedom.
- Blood from the Mouth: Jean, after he is shot by a cop while escaping the garage with Henri. He soon dies.
- Chekhov's Gun: One of the thieves drives a car into the garage at high speed, and the license plate falls off. A boy picks up the license plate and puts it on the back of his go-kart. This leads directly to the police apprehending the gang, when the owner of the car spots the license plate and the boy tells the cops where he found it.
- Dramatic Drop: One of the thieves dramatically drops his armload of fake license plates when another thief yells "Police!" as the cops show up.
- Hassle-Free Hotwire: Maybe it was easier in the 1930s? Jean quickly hotwires and steals a car while her sister the Honey Pot keeps the car's owner distracted.
- Honey Pot: Jeanette's role in the gang. She accepts a ride from a Dirty Old Man who is more than old enough to be her father, then, when the man takes her to a cafe, makes an excuse to phone the gang. The gang then steals the car
- No Name Given: Several of the members of the gang aren't named. The one wacky thief who always wears striped suits is credited as "the zebra." The gang leader that tries to kill Henri is credited as "the chief."
- P.O.V. Cam: The film opens with a POV shot of Henri driving at high speed and very unsafely through the streets of Paris.
- Staggered Zoom: A gag has one member of the gang lock up his car by chaining it to a lampost, only for him to see a "no parking" sign, complete with a staggered zoom onto the sign. The thief simply removes the sign.
- Vehicular Sabotage: Played with. When one thief drives a car into the shop so recklessly that he breaks the axle, the gang tries to conceal this from buyers by clumsily welding the axle back together. Later, the chief, who knows this, sends Henri out on a fake delivery of the car, in the hopes that when Henri gets up to highway speed the axle will snap and he'll crash and die.
- Video Credits: Of all the cast members at the start of the film, a style that was popular in the 1930s. Unlike many American films that did this, however, the clips of the characters have audio and spoken dialogue.
