Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
Marcel Mouloudji Raymond Pellegrin Antoine Balpêtré Julien Verdier Claude Laydu Georges Poujouly Jacqueline Pierreux Lucien Nat Louis Arbessier René Blancard Léonce Corne Henri Crémieux Jean Daurand Yvonne de Bray Guy Decomble Monette Dinay Yvette Etiévant Juliette Faber Paul Faivre Anouk Ferjac Paul Frankeur Renée Gardès Jérôme Goulven Jean-Pierre Grenier Elisabeth Hardy François Joux Alinda Kristensen Benoîte Labb Charles Lemontier Roland Lesaffre Liliane Maigné Daniel Mendaille Eliane Monceau Jacques Morel Jean-Paul Moulinot Amedeo Nazzari Line Noro Marcel Pérès André Reybaz Alexandre Rignault Yvonne Sanson Louis Seigner Solange Sicard Sylvie Georges Tabet Jean-Marc Tennberg André Valmy François Vibert Henri Vilbert Edmond Ardisson Doudou Babet Frédéric Bard Paul Barge René Berthier Charles Bouillaud
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