La mme vertdegris French for The GreyishGreen Dame, released in the USA as Poison Ivy, is a 1953 French crime film. It was French director Bernard Borderies first film, as well as Americanborn French actor Eddie Constantines. The screenplay is based the on the 1937 Lemmy Caution thriller Poison Ivy by Peter Cheyney, which had been in 1945 the first title published in Marcel Duhamels Srie noire. The story involves FBI agent Caution investigating gold smuggling activity in Casablanca.
Considered either tongueincheek or doddery, the film utilizes all the rules of the genre, albeit without convictions chases, fistfights, nightclubs, unusual settings, knowing winks at the public. It was a commercial success in France 3,846,158 French entries in 1953 and was followed byother Lemmy Caution films until 1967, not counting JeanLuc Godards incomprehensible Alphaville, a strange adventure of Lemmy Caution, casting Constantine and Vernon. Constantines enduring success started with this. This film was considered emblematic of French postwar attitudes towards the United States a fascination for U.S. culture tempered by fear of U.S. dominance.
Source: Wikipedia