Filming for Jacques Feyder's 1946 social realism/crime film Macadam took place in the hot summer of 1946.
The realistic Paris street scenes, all shot in black and white give a very real feeling of the struggling to get by that was the lot of the vast majority, where the Marche Noir still held sway, and not to many questions were asked about an item's origins.
Queen of these "Back Streets of Paris" is the inimitable Francois Rosay as the unscrupulous hotelkeeper Mme Rose.
Entrusted (rather unwisely) with an attache case full of 1,000 Franc notes by an old acquaintance (Paul Meurisse), She inevitably dips in, removing a handful. At 41 min 25 sec in we get a nice shot of the Demeter 1,000, a quick flick to test the paper's durability and then the magnifying glass, suggesting this is a "lady" who can tell the good from the bad!.
By 41min 46sec, She is assured the note has past the test, and an employee is dispatched to get it changed.
The Demeter, designed by Lucien Jonas, only bore dates for Two years of issue, 1942-43, entering circulation October 1942, and ceasing to circulate when the French government called in all banknotes over 50 Francs in June 1945.
This latter measure would suggest that although "Macadam/Back Streets of Paris" was filmed and released in 1946, the film was set slightly earlier.
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