Forces Occultes (Occult Forces – subtitled The Mysteries of Freemasonry Unveiled for the First Time on the Screen) is a French film of 1943, notable as the last film to be directed by Paul Riche (the pseudonym of Jean Mamy).
Plot
The film recounts the life of Mr. Avenel, a young member of parliament who joins the Freemasons in order to relaunch his career. He thus learns of how the Freemasons are conspiring with the Jews and the Anglo-American nations to encourage France into a war against Germany.
History
The film was commissioned in 1942 by the Propaganda Abteilung, a delegation of Nazi Germany's propaganda ministry within occupied France by the ex-Mason, Mamy. It virulently denounces Freemasonry, parliamentarianism, and Judaism as part of Vichy's drive against them and seeks to prove a Jewish-Masonic plot.
On France's liberation, its writer Jean Marquès-Rivière, its producer Robert Muzard, and its director Jean Mamy were purged for collaboration with the enemy. On 25 November 1945, Muzard was condemned to 3 years in prison and Marquès-Rivière was condemned in his absence (he had gone into self-imposed exile) to death and degradation.
