Musicians of Heaven (1940) User Reviews

Salvation Army social melodrama

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 7/10 · 20 January 2018]

"Les Musiciens du Ciel" isn't the best movie directed by Georges Lacombe, and it is more René Lefèvre's movie, playing the lead character after having written the script and dialogues from his novel. In fact, we see mostly René Lefèvre whose part is the only developped character. Michel Simon has a very serious character as a Salvation Army officer, the total opposite of "fric-Frac", and we don't see him too much. And Michèle Morgan, as beautiful as always, is also extremely serious as a Salvation Army officer. That kind of movie with good feelings is necessary to see, it might change your way of looking at people, like Victor when he "sees" Morgan's neighbour, what a great scene (could have been in a Tod Browning movie).

Pie in the sky...... (and on earth too)

[dbdumonteil · 3 January 2007]

They do not do films like that anymore.

Georges Lacombe was a commendable director who made good thrillers ("le Dernier des Six" which owed a lot to (Henri-) George Clouzot)or interesting films noirs ("Leur Dernière Nuit" "La Lumière d'en Face") "Les Musiciens du Ciel" was a hymn to the Salvation Army -the year before,Julien Duvivier made Micheline Francey a Salvationist in "la Charette Fantôme" -.

René Lefèvre ("L'Ane de Buridan" "Gueule d'Amour" "Le Crime de Monsieur Lange") portrays a two-bit hoodlum .One day when he was pretending to be blind to beg for some money,he met a Salvationist (lieutenant!) (Michèle Morgan).he fell for her and became her assistant. Soon he would array himself in the Army's uniform.

Although the hero is in love with lieutenant Saulnier ,there are no kisses,no real love scenes between them.And there's a colorful character in the charitable organization:Michel Simon as captain Simon (sic) who tells the prodigal son's tale in his own way ,and his narration is worth the price of admission.

But TB strikes .As the "Mon Beau Sapin" traditional is sung by the whole congregation ,"they take her to Heaven" Simon says(no pun intended).

They don't do films like that anymore.

The Wages Of Virtue

[writers_reign · 8/10 · 12 January 2007]

On a superficial level this could be described as Guys and Dolls without the Frank Loesser score and an unhappy ending, Beautiful Salvation Army Girl Saves Sinner's Soul And He Enlists but that approach would do justice to neither.

Very few, if indeed any, actresses did 'goodness/sadness' better than Michele Morgan, blessed as she was, with two of the most expressive eyes in the business and here it is, in a manner of speaking, business as usual as her Salvationist (lieutenant) encounters low-life Rene Lefevre and by her example turns his life around. Given the size of his billing Michel Simon has a relatively small role as captain, appearing only in the second half of the film. He and Morgan had played together memorably in Quai des Brumes the previous year (imdb is incorrect in dating this as 1940, it was actually released in 1939) but then they had been adversaries rather than comrades. Morgan herself doesn't make an appearance until the third reel but that gives us time to see just how wicked Lefevre is for only when we know the depth of his degradation can we measure his ascent. Morgan encounters him when he is affecting blindness and making a decent living out of gullible people and her subsequent treatment of him causes him to initially fall in love with her and then take inspiration from her selflessness. In a nice touch this is a love story with no kisses or caresses and as is often the case Morgan pays the price for being virtuous, expiring from a long-time wasting sickness. Georges Lacombe was a fair journeyman director with the Henri-Georges Clouzot screenplay Les Derniers des six arguably his finest directorial effort with this one not far behind.