AllMovie

Absent from the screen since 1944's Kismet, the incomparable Marlene Dietrich returned in the French romantic melodrama Martin Roumagnac. La Dietrich is cast opposite Jean Gabin, here playing a small-town contractor with an eye for the ladies. He is entranced by Dietrich, a woman who's "been around" and who intends to remain in circulation even after trapping Gabin in her web. When Gabin figures out he's been had, the results are unexpectedly tragic. Martin Roumagnac was a second-choice project for Dietrich and Gabin, who'd originally been offered the leads in Marcel Carne's Les Portes de la Nuit, which frankly would have been a better vehicle for them. In America, Martin Roumagnac was released as The Room Upstairs.