MONSIEUR SPADE Trailer (2024) Clive Owen
ONE Media
The series opens with sequence of screens that display this text message, a couple of lines at a time:
SOME SAY THAT SAM SPADE WAS
THE GREATEST PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR WHO EVER LIVED.
IN SAN FRANCISCO.
IT ALL DEPENDED ON WHICH BAR YOU WERE SITTING AT
WHEN YOU ASKED THE QUESTION.
BUT THAT WAS A LONG TIME AGO.
BEFORE HE DISAPPEARED.
NOW THERE ARE THOSE WHO SAY
HE LIVES SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
WHILE OTHERS SAY,
>>FRANCE?<<
>>SPADE?<<
>> NOT A CHANCE!<<
So somebody was letting their imagination run loose, and thought they would make a new movie starring all-American Sam Spade, but let's put a twist on it and set it France. What would that looks like? Well, it's not bad. France has a long history of making gritty detective / murder mysteries. Pépé le Moko comes to mind.
The show is a little confusing, partly because while everyone is talking about the villain, he doesn't appear until we are halfway through the show.
Clive Owen stars as iconic private detective Sam Spade, now retired and living in southern France. Except he ain't really retired now, is he? His last job has a dying woman hiring him to pick up her daughter, Teresa, from Istanbul and deliver her to her father in France. He picks up the girl okay and delivers her to France, but her father proves elusive, so he enrolls her in a boarding school at a local convent. Meanwhile Sam marries a Gabrielle, a rich widow. Eight years go by, Gabrielle dies and Sam inherits her fortune and her estate. Teresa is now approaching her 18th birthday and her 'father' and grandmother, who previously wanted nothing to do with her, are suddenly filled with affection for the girl. Seems the father pilfered a large sum of money and the mother managed to stash the loot in a trust fund in the girls name. Once she turns 18 she will have access to that money, so everyone suspects the papa and grand mama's sudden change of heart is based on this expectation.
The show jumps back and forth between the mid-1950s and the early 1960s. In the fifties, the people are still dealing with the after effects of WW2, especially those who collaborated with the Nazis. In the 1960s we've got the rebellion in Algeria going on which has divided the French into those who want to hang onto Algeria and those who are willing to let it go, and they are killing each other over this.
"The planned French withdrawal led to a state crisis. This included various assassination attempts on de Gaulle as well as some attempts at military coups. Most of the former were carried out by the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), an underground organization formed mainly from French military personnel supporting a French Algeria, which committed a large number of bombings and murders both in Algeria and in the homeland to stop the planned independence."
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| Bozouls, France |
Much of the story is set in the town of Bozouls. The town is perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Dourdou de Conques river.
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| Peugeot 203 |
Sam drives several different cars which is one way you can tell which timeline you are in. The show opens with the Peugeot 203, a handsome car. In later years he's driving a weird looking Citroen.
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| Panhard CD |
We have a bunch of outsiders in town, all looking for one mystery kid. British Intelligence are driving a Panhard CD.
The way the show turns out was quite surprising. All through the show Sam shows no affection for his ward, Teresa, but he continues to watch over her. Put that together with the fact that her erstwhile father shows no interest in her, and it should be obvious who her father is, but it still surprised me.
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