A small French village is plagued by a poison-pen writer, whose principal target is Doctor Germain (
Pierre Fresnay).
The vitriolic letters wreak so much havoc that soon neighbor turns upon
neighbor. Eventually, even the doctor himself becomes one of the
suspects, as the townspeople are driven to commit paranoia-fueled crimes
and suicides. The actual culprit is revealed to be one of the least
likely candidates. Though it can now be seen to be a subliminal
indictment of the paranoia fomented by the Nazi occupation of France,
Le Corbeau (aka
The Raven) was condemned as unpatriotic after the liberation, and director
Henri-Georges Clouzot was banned from filmmaking until 1947. Based on a story by
Clouzot and
Louis Chavance,
Le Corbeau was remade in Hollywood by
Otto Preminger as
The 13th Letter (1951).
