The Red Inn
About The Red Inn
A diamond merchant tells a dinner party a story from the early Revolution, set in Alsace. Two young doctors, caught in a storm, take a room at an inn. A Dutch diamond broker joins them and, for lack of another bed, shares the room. During the night Prosper Magnan steals the stones. At dawn the merchant is dead and Prosper's friend is gone. A few years later the account is settled.
Cast & crew
More about The Red Inn
Jean Epstein wrote and directed it for Pathé, from Honoré de Balzac's 1831 story The Red Inn. Raoul Aubourdier and Roger Hubert photographed it. Pathé released it on 28 September 1923. It runs 80 minutes. Location work was done at the Château de Vincennes. The French title is L'Auberge rouge.
Themes
Making
Epstein tells Balzac's inn story from a dinner table, and cuts back to the teller eating and drinking. The inn scenes were shot at Vincennes.
Look
Raoul Aubourdier and Roger Hubert photographed the Vincennes locations and the close views of the dinner and the bedroom.
Preservation
A print is at the Harvard Film Archive. One copy runs 72 minutes 22 seconds.
Notes
- Léon Mathot plays Prosper Magnan. Jean-David Évremond plays Frédéric Taillefer. Thomy Bourdelle plays the Dutchman.
- Gina Manès plays the innkeeper's daughter. Pierre Hot plays the innkeeper. Clairette de Savoye plays his wife. Madame Delaunay plays a witch. Marcelle Schmitt plays Victorine.
- A copy of the film runs 72 minutes 22 seconds.
- The Harvard Film Archive holds a print.
Scenes
- The merchant starts the Alsace story at the dinner table.
- Prosper, his friend, and the Dutch broker share one room.
- Morning: the broker is dead and the friend is gone.
Influenced by
- Honoré de Balzac's The Red Inn
Also available
- Harvard Film Archive
- Wikimedia Commons (L'Auberge rouge (1923) by Jean Epstein.webm)
