Georges Saillard

Jean Valjean is a good man who is nevertheless convicted and imprisoned for a minor offense. When he escapes, he is pursued for decades by the unrelenting lawman, Javert. (imdb)

Based on a novel by Maurice Dekobra, the film is set in the Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century. It depicts a love triangle between a high-class prostitute, a Russian naval officer, and a rickshaw man.

François is a cashier at the banking firm Melchiors. His daughter Marcelle works at a fashion warehouse and secretly deals with Louis, the son of Melchiors. When Louis steals money from the bank to settle his game debts, François notices. Melchiors finds out that Louis has stolen money. At the same time, François discovers his daughter's affair. Embarrassed, he resigns and goes to live outside the city with Marcelle.

This film is not exceedingly well acted, but has the additional charm of being taken from the actual history of the man whose personality dominated the Committee of Safety in the early days of the French Revolution. It's tragic but enthralling, and full of the atmosphere of those more than troublous times of the French Revolution, when blood was shed like water and men seemed turned to beasts.