We Are All Murderers

We Are All Murderers

1952 · 117 min · ★ 6.7 · Crime, Drama

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.

Directed by André Cayatte · Written by Charles Spaak

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Streaming

Rent or Buy

Cast

Marcel Mouloudji René Le Guen
Raymond Pellegrin Gino Bollini
Antoine Balpêtré Dr. Albert Dutoit
Julien Verdier Bauchet
Claude Laydu Philippe Arnaud
Georges Poujouly Michel Le Guen
Jacqueline Pierreux Yvonne Le Guen (version française)
Lucien Nat L'avocat général
Louis Arbessier L'avocat du tribunal pour enfants
René Blancard Albert Pichon
Léonce Corne Le colonel instructeur
Henri Crémieux L'avocat de Bauchet

Make it a double feature

4h 15m together

We Are All Murderers

Before the Deluge

Both from André Cayatte.

More from André CayatteSee all →

Les Avocats du Diable

Les Avocats du Diable · 1981

Les Avocats du Diable

MovieTV MovieDrama

In 1958 in Paris, during the Algerian War, a young trainee lawyer, Maître Chabrier, was assigned to defend an Algerian garbage collector against paratroopers who had beaten him. Stay out of Algerian affairs, his peers advise him because the trial is taking a political turn. Chabrier acquired the reputation of the Fellaghas' lawyer.

The Curtain Rises

The Curtain Rises · 1938

The Curtain Rises

MovieComedyDrama

1938, France, Paris, at the Superior Conservatory of Dramatic Art ("Conservatoire Supérieur d'Art Dramatique"). The first-year entrance exams are in full swing. Many applicants, few accepted. Isabelle (Janine Darcey) is one of the few chosen. She joins former students from the second and third years, including François (Claude Dauphin) and Cécilia (Odette Joyeux). They attend the drama class run by Professor Lambertin (Louis Jouvet). The young people, passionate and eager to become comedians, clash in tumultuous love affairs, because by dint of acting, they imagine that life is a farce. François, for example, is in love with Isabelle, who also loves him, but is pursued by Cecilia, his former mistress... "Put art in your life and life in your art!"

The Sword and the Balance

The Sword and the Balance · 1963

The Sword and the Balance

MovieDramaThriller

Three young men are suspected of kidnapping and murdering a little boy. Most likely, two of them are really involved, but one is not. All of their pasts are questionable, riddled with violence and controversy. Neither the police nor the court can decide how to solve that puzzle.

Risky Business

Risky Business · 1967

A teenage girl accuses her primary schoolteacher, Jean Doucet (Jacques Brel), of trying to rape her. The police and the mayor investigate, but Doucet denies the charges. Two other students come forward to reveal more of Doucet's misconduct – one confessing to be his mistress. Doucet faces trial and hard labor if convicted.

Shop Girls of Paris

Shop Girls of Paris · 1943

Shop Girls of Paris

The struggles of a small business owner come to light in this film by director André Cayatte. The proprietor of a fabric shop, M. Baudu faces stiff competition when a department store moves in across the street, the first of its kind in 1860s Paris. On top of the stresses associated with the rival retailer, Baudu’s niece and two nephews take up residence with him after recently being orphaned. The niece, Denise Baudu, sees the writing on the wall for her uncle’s business so she takes a job as a shop girl with his competitor and despite her success the decision does not register well with the family.

Le Grand Secret

Le Grand Secret · 1989

Le Grand Secret

A young woman searches for her biologist lover who disappeared after an Indian scientist made a discovery that could endanger humanity.

Question of Love

Question of Love · 1978

Question of Love

Architect Dumas dies from a bullet of his own gun in front of his house. The police suspect his young Swedish wife Catherine and her English lover Tom Hastings. After numerous interrogations, in which they entangle themselves in contradictions, they try to flee, but are soon both caught and brought to trial, he in England, she in France. Only when Catherine keeps on proclaiming her innocence, superintendent Corbier finally considers believing her.

The Mirror Has Two Faces

The Mirror Has Two Faces · 1996

The Mirror Has Two Faces

MovieComedyDrama

Rose Morgan, who still lives with her mother, is a professor of Romantic Literature who desperately longs for passion in her life. Gregory Larkin, a mathematics professor, has been burned by passionate relationships and longs for a sexless union based on friendship and respect.

Stormy Waters

Stormy Waters · 1941

MovieDramaRomance

A married tugboat captain falls for a woman he rescues from a sinking ship.

Before the Deluge

Before the Deluge · 1954

Before the Deluge

The title of this French "reality" drama, which translates to Before the Deluge, is a play on Louis XVI's famous prognostication, "Apres moi, le deluge." Set in 1950, the film concentrates on five Parisian adolescents. Certain that the next war will herald the apocalypse, the youngster make plans to run off to a desert island and set up a new society. This, however, will require money, which is why the boys decide to pull off a "necessary" robbery. Idealism collapses in the face of cold reality, as the five youths suffer from the consequences of their actions. Avant le Deluge was one of a group of films cowritten by director Andre Cayatte and Charles Spaak which endeavored to explore the touchy social issues of the day: others in the Cayatte-Spaak canon include the euthanasia-themed Justice est Faite and the capital-punishment tract Nous sommes tous des assassins.

Tomorrow Is My Turn

Tomorrow Is My Turn · 1960

Tomorrow Is My Turn

Following the defeat of France by Germany during WWII, two French soldiers are taken to a German farm as forced laborers.

Return to Life

Return to Life · 1949

MovieDramaComedy

In France in 1946, the difficult return to civilian life of five deportees and prisoners of war after having lived through the hell of the Second World War.

Jury of One

Jury of One · 1974

MovieCrimeDrama

A desperate woman, whose son is on trial for murder, blackmails the judge and kidnaps his wife.

To Die of Love

To Die of Love · 1971

A love story between a teacher, Danièle, 32 years and one of her students Gérard, 17 during the heated atmosphere of May 68. Danièle is a fiery young woman, very involved politically. Gérard's parents accuse Danièle of statutory rape and complain. Danièle is trapped and the drama begins...

Where There's Smoke

Where There's Smoke · 1973

Where There's Smoke

An election campaign becomes more interesting when anonymously published photographs depict the wife of a candidate, Dr. Peyrac, attending a sex party. Are the photographs fake or genuine ?

The Mirror Has Two Faces

The Mirror Has Two Faces · 1958

The Mirror Has Two Faces

A teacher runs an ad in the newspaper to find a wife. Afraid of beautiful ladies, he weds an ugly woman. After a car accident, he meets a doctor who offers to reveal his wife's beauty.

More Like This

The Green Mile

The Green Mile · 1999

MovieFantasyDrama

A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.

A Time to Kill

A Time to Kill · 1996

MovieCrimeDrama

A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.

Primal Fear

Primal Fear · 1996

MovieCrimeDrama

Defense attorney Martin Vail takes on jobs for money and prestige rather than any sense of the greater good. His latest case involves an altar boy, accused of brutally murdering the archbishop of Chicago. Vail finds himself up against his ex-pupil and ex-lover, but as the case progresses and the Church's dark secrets are revealed, Vail finds that what appeared a simple case takes on a darker, more dangerous aspect.

12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men · 1957

The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman · 2005

Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

MovieDramaHistory

Following in his father's footsteps, Albert Pierrepoint becomes one of Britain's most prolific executioners, hiding his identity as a grocery deliveryman. But when his ambition to be the best inadvertently exposes his gruesome secret, he becomes a minor celebrity & faces a public outcry against the practice of hanging. Based on true events.

Let Him Have It

Let Him Have It · 1991

Let Him Have It

In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.

Illegal

Illegal · 1955

MovieCrimeDrama

A hugely successful DA goes into private practice after sending a man to the chair -- only to find out later he was innocent. Now the drunken attorney only seems to represent criminals and low lifes.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt · 1956

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

MovieCrimeDrama

A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is to have Tom plant clues leading to his arrest for killing a female nightclub dancer. Once Tom is found guilty, he is to reveal the setup and humiliate the DA.

Dance with a Stranger

Dance with a Stranger · 1985

Dance with a Stranger

MovieCrimeDrama

Ruth Ellis lives with her ten-year old son Andy next to a night club. One night she meets David Blakely, and they start a love affair. However, for David with his upper-class background, it is impossible to uphold the relationship. He breaks up with her, something which makes Ellis, obsessed by him, very upset.

Knock on Any Door

Knock on Any Door · 1949

Knock on Any Door

MovieDramaCrime

An attorney defends a hoodlum of murder, using the oppressiveness of the slums to appeal to the court.

The Onion Field

The Onion Field · 1979

The Onion Field

MovieCrimeDrama

An LA police officer is murdered in the onion fields outside of Bakersfield. However, legal loopholes could keep his kidnappers from receiving justice, and his partner is haunted by overwhelming survivor's guilt.

Cromwell

Cromwell · 1970

MovieDramaHistory

Disgusted with the policies of King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell plans to take his family to the New World. But on the eve of their departure, Cromwell is drawn into the tangled web of religion and politics that will result in the English Civil War.

Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs

Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs · 1974

Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs

MovieThrillerAction

Agent Zero is a cop that uses her own methods for dealing with criminals. After she unlawfully kills a rapist in a violent fashion, she is sent to prison and stripped of her badge. But very soon after, a rich politician's daughter is kidnapped by a ruthless gang. Agent Zero is let out of prison with the mission of going undercover to find the politician's daughter and return her safely. Using her deadly red handcuffs, she disposes of the criminals one by one.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter