Occult Forces

Forces occultes represents Vichy France's most determined effort at Nazi propaganda. The film depicts the rise of a young minister, who, to further his career, joins the French Freemasons. He subsequently starts to believe that, along with the Jews, they deliberately want to push France into a war against Germany. This is, of course, pure odious Vichy propaganda. After the liberation of France, screenwriter Jean Marquès-Rivière, producer Robert Muzard and director Paul Riche (real name Jean Mamy) were all severely punished for their overt collabaration with the Vichy government and the Nazis. On November 25th 1945, Muzard, also the director of the popular magazine "Ciné-Mondial", was condemned to 3 years imprisonment. Jean Marquès-Rivière, who had fled France, was condemned to death, national degradation (loss of civil rights as a French citizen); all his assets were also confiscated. Director, Jean Mamy (a.k.a Paul Riche), a journalist for the French fascist newspaper "Au pilori" and a fierce anti-Semite, was also condemned to death. He was shot by a firing squad at the Montrouge Fortress on March 29th 1949.