This was the first of three collaborations between Jean Gabin and Jean Renoir in the mid-late thirties and there is a distinct link between this and Le Grande Illusion in the friendship across the classes as epitomised in both films by Gabin's prole and respectively Louis Jouvet's and Pierre Fresnay's aristocrat. Gabin was a star in all but name by 1936 when this was shot and it came more or less in the centre of his great fertile first period surrounded by La Bandera, La Belle Equipe, Pepe Le Moko, Quai des Brumes, Le Bete Humaine etc. Louis Jouvet was first and foremost a man of the theatre but he made several successful forays into film and also had a masterpiece (Feyder's La Kermesse heroique) behind him when he made this. Not unnaturally he and Gabin walk away with the piece despite a 'flashy' turn by Robert Le Vigan and solid support by Suzy Prim. Despite Russian names none of the principals is convincing as a Russian - and to be fair they don't try all that hard - but they do, nevertheless, weigh in with some top of the line acting and though the 'happy' ending clashes with Gorky's original it remains a fine movie.
Review of The Lower Depths
