One year before the film widely seen as his career comeback, Jacques Becker’s Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954), Jean Gabin starred in Gilles Grangier’s relatively low-key La vierge du Rhin (US: Rhine Virgin) as Jacques Ledru, assumed killed during the war, who returns to Strasbourg to find that his wife Geneviève (a deliciously manipulative Elina Labourdette) has taken control of his shipping company with her new husband Maurice Labbé (Renaud Mary). Made relatable through Gabin’s more wizened and weathered appearance (at least compared to his earlier films), Ledru takes a job under an assumed name as crewmember on one of his company’s transport ships, the titular Rhine Virgin, where he discloses his true identity to the pretty daughter (Nadia Gray) of Captain Meister (Olivier Hussenot). When Geneviève later learns of his return, she and Maurice will do anything to eliminate him, including a hit and run, so they don’t have to relinquish control of the business empire. Before long, a murder occurs (from the faceless murderer’s point of view), but the victim isn’t Ledru. Grangier makes beautiful use of the Rhineland countryside and riverfront in the opening act, a stark contrast with the gritty, downbeat characters congregating in the gritty, downbeat waterfront bars.