Review: Lemmy Caution (3) Les Femmes s'ent balancent/The Dames don't care 1954

It is very easy to see where the big spy-movies of the 1960s came from: Lemmy Caution - not only are his movies blueprints for the James Bond films, but "G-Man Lemmy Caution" obviously stood Godfather to the German "G-Man Jerry Cotton" series that - for a few short years - was incredibly successful too.

After the Second World War, the Gallimard publishing house decided to launch a new series to publish the American detective novels that it had been unable to publish during the war. The first two titles were La Môme vert-de-gris (1937) and Cet homme est dangereuse (This man is dangerous, 1936) by Peter Cheyney, which followed Lemuel H. Caution, known as “Lemmy,” a tough and flirtatious FBI agent with a quick temper and acerbic tongue. They were an immediate success and led to the launch of the Série Noire series, with each new title being printed in 30,000 copies. “For a while, French readers were convinced that Cheyney was an American author,” wrote Étienne Borgers in The Big Book of Noir (1998), although he was actually a former British policeman who parodied the American style to the point of caricature.

The first movie "Poison Ivy" in 1952 was such a huge success that director/producer Bernard Borderie shot numerous sequels in fast sequence. All starring scar-faced Eddie Constantine they are an enjoyable mixture of organized crime, beautiful women, fancy decors, hard fists and very, very "saloppe" talk. Lemmy Caution is always in control of the plot and the women and the men, and he knows it, frequently crossing the 4th barrier by being our complicit.

So, thankfully, this movie starts with the noirish narration that informs us that this is the third Lemmy Caution movie. This time he is in Sicilly, which looks suspiciously like French Algeria. But we will not complain...

FBI agent Lemmy Caution is tasked with exposing a gang of counterfeiters. He meets his contact Sagers under a false name in the Casa Antica gambling club. From Sagers, Caution receives initial information about the young widow Henrietta and certain letters that could serve as possible evidence in the case. Lemmy then searches Henrietta's apartment, finds and steals the letters. Shortly afterwards, Lemmy finds Sagers murdered in the club. Lemmy learns further details from police chief Metts, who has informed the FBI. Henrietta was caught trying to deposit counterfeit money in the bank. She protested her innocence and said that she had received the money from her husband, the stock market speculator Granworth Aymes. At the height of his success in Rome, Aymes unexpectedly committed suicide by driving his car over a half-finished bridge into the abyss. The bridgekeeper initially said nothing suspicious as a witness, but when questioned later he said that he had seen a woman getting out of the car before the crash. Lemmy now realizes the meaning of the letters, which confirm Henrietta's presence in Rome at the time of the crime. 

In the nightclub, Lemmy witnesses an argument between Henrietta's friend Jim Malony and the nightclub manager Fernandez. Lemmy joins the poker game in Jim's place and provokes Fernandez. In the ensuing fight, he is able to defeat Fernandez and thus gain Henrietta's attention. He pretends to be a lawyer to Henriette and reports that her husband's case is to be reopened because the police have learned of her presence in Rome and now suspect murder. After Lemmy has also questioned Malony, he identifies himself to the two as an FBI agent. 

Lemmy receives information from the police chief that two of Granworth's former employees are now working in the Casa. In addition to the chambermaid Marie, Fernandez turns out to be Granworth's former chauffeur, Jean Termiglio. Henrietta asks Lemmy to talk to him, she admits that she was in Rome at the time in question, and that on the evening of the death she had an argument with her husband over the impending divorce. She received the counterfeit money from her husband. In order not to draw suspicion to her, her husband's secretary advised Burdell to keep quiet about her presence in Rome. On the way back from Henrietta's house, Lemmy narrowly avoids an attack. He then has the widow arrested by Fernandez. He also has the police monitor the Casa's telephone.

In Rome, Lemmy has Burdell confirm Henrietta's story. Burdell also admits to having bribed the bridge guard not to mention the woman getting out of the car to the police. When Lemmy questions Fernandez, he also says that he only wanted to protect Henrietta, and he names Paulette Benito as Granworth's companion on the day of his killing. Lemmy drives to her, interrupts a party by simply throwing everyone one else out and starts questioning her.

During the questioning, he is told that she has the real money, that her husband, who worked for Aymes, exchanged the real money for the fake money with Henrietta on Granworth's behalf. He is now lying dying in hospital. On the way to the hospital, Lemmy is attacked by some men and taken prisoner. However, he manages to escape after a short time. In the hospital, the seriously ill Benito confirms that his wife Paulette is the dead man's lover. Caution drives back to Paulette, accuses her of ordering the attack and arrests her for the murder of Aymes. In the basement of the Casa, Lemmy discovers the counterfeiting and is able to arrest Fernandez as Sager's murderer. He then has Henrietta brought to the police station as well.

At the police station, Lemmy explains the circumstances to those present. The terminally ill Benito asked the stockbroker Aymes to sell his securities. Aymes paid for the sale with counterfeit money. He gave the real money to Henrietta as compensation as part of the planned divorce. When Benito found out about Paulette's affair with Aymes and recognized the counterfeit money, the sick man wanted revenge. He put Aymes, Paulette and Bordell in their office. However, Aymes managed to kill Benito. After swapping clothes with the corpse, Aymes wrote a farewell letter and Paulette drove the corpse into the abyss in his car. Bordell identified the burned corpse to the police and bribed the supervisor. Aymes, believed to be dead, then swapped the real money that was with Henrietta for the counterfeits in order to direct suspicion towards his wife.

The unmasked Aymes surprises Caution as he accompanies Henrietta to her apartment and demands that Paulette be released. In a duel, Lemmy defeats the mastermind of the events.

The movie is fast-paced, funny and the plot intriguing. A really funny in-joke is that Belgian model Dominique Wilms is again playing the femme fatale (as she had done in the first Lemmy Caution "Poison Ivy"), even down to an identical hairdo. We know, and Lemmy knows too, making some wise-cracking remarks about where he has seen her face before..Her last movie would be the G-Man Jerry Cotton movie "Um Null Uhr schnappt die Falle zu" in 1966, ironically.

The movie was a huge European success, easily making it into the French Top 10 in 1954, in Germany too, the movie did very well as (of course) in Italy.