[4] The film marked the beginning of a successful collaboration with surrealist poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert.

"[5] Under the German occupation of France during World War II, Carné worked in the Vichy zone where he subverted the regime's attempts to control art; several of his team were Jewish, including Joseph Kosma and set designer Alexandre Trauner.

Under difficult conditions they made Carné's most highly regarded film Les Enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise, 1945) released after the Liberation of France.

Post-war, he and Prévert followed this triumph with what at the time was the most expensive production ever undertaken in the history of French film.

But the result, titled Les Portes de la nuit, was panned by the critics and a box-office failure and was their last completed film.