Femme fatale Madeleine Robinson is married to Raymond Aimos, a coal miner with a face like a pickled walnut and a libido to match. She wants some action, and what she can't get from her impotent husband, she looks for elsewhere, first with his best friend Pierre Brasseur, then with his boss Lucien Gallas, who is also dating Brasseur's kid sister Odette Joyeux.
Throw in the mandatory pit disaster to remind everyone of the true meaning of comradeship, and it adds up to a routine melodrama, ably directed but unremarkable, particularly for a year which produced such timeless classics as Hôtel du Nord, La Bête humaine and Quai des brumes. The main interest for me was the sense of an authentic mining community rather than a studio facsimile; and the pleasure of seeing favourite actors Brasseur, Robinson, Joyeux and Bernard Blier (a minor role as Joyeux's second choice boyfriend) while still young in their careers.
