Angel's face This is the kind of movie the "nouvelle vague" freed us from in my native France,we hear.All right,but as for me,I do not want to be free.These fifties French thrillers with their impeccable science of the story-telling do not deserve to be swept away by aso called "new wave",be they Duvivier's "voici le temps des assassins" ,Clouzot's "les diaboliques"or even Jean Delannoy's "obsession" (His treatment of William Irish is better than Truffaut's in "the bride wore black"). "Voici le temps des assassins", is frightening,it is a film noir par excellence ,with absolutely satanic characters. The young girl,(Delorme)who 's so good-looking hides behind her angel's face pure evil.She's abetted by an addicted, ugly and unscrupulous slut-mother to fleecethe owner of a restaurant(Gabin) in Les Halles ,a part of Paris now disappeared.Gabin was the slut's former husband. You think it will be the eternal battle good versus evil.Stop! Gabin has got a mother too(Germaine Kerjean):she's an over-possessive mother,she wields the whip on her chicken which she kills by beheading them with her weapon)in her guinguette(café where you can drink wine and dance) on the banks of the Seine.But not only on her chicken as the heroine Delorme will discover. All will happen quickly,the feud will take place on thehumid and foggy banks of the river,no one will get out of it unharmed.The places are so sordid -with the exception of Gabin's restaurant-that they contribute ,more they epitomize this decay of the heart and the soul.