Andre Cayatte (1909-1989) was a barrister turned filmmaker who embarked upon his career in film at the Nazi-occupied Continental Films in 1940 releasing his first feature Thunder Under Paris which starred actress and bon vivant Arletty. But his most widely discussed films would include 1950's Let Justice Be Done, Nous sommes tous des assassins (1952), 1954's Before the Flood and Le Dossier Noir (1955). Cayatte and his scenarist Charles Spaak tackled a variety of social and legal problems such as euthanasia, juvenile delinquency and capital punishment.
The films are however very flatly shot. Andre Cayatte's penchant for the basic shot/reaction set-up ideally suited the dramatic confrontations in which his films traded. Dry and schematic, they would frequently resort to heated arguments and special pleading. The issues are developed in terms of what is right versus what is wrong. Sympathies and pathos are engaged accordingly, largely due to the charismatic charms of the actors playing the roles; the defeated and the condemned man whose fate hangs in the balance invariably turns out to be completely innocent, and so on, et al.