Runtime: 106 minutes
Directed by: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Starring: Louis Jouvet, Suzy Delair, Bernard Blier, Simone Renant, Pierre Larquey
From: Majestic Films
At least this movie has an excuse for straying far from the source material: the people that adapted it only read it years beforehand and writing from hazy memories resulted in something only loosely connected to a novel (title translates in English to Self Defense) by Belgian author Stanislas-Andre Steeman. The differences are unknown to me but from scuttlebutt, the French-speaking Steeman was apparently a great mystery author who'd have many more English-speaking fans if more of his work was translated.
As I can discuss this movie, it's from Henri-Georges Clouzot, which is one of the reasons I had even heard of this (the initial time was years ago) and finally-via TCM-it was seen. As the movie was named after the French equivalent of Scotland Yard, it does follow a dour yet amusing detective named Antoine, although it concurrently covers the main suspects who are connected to the death of “an old geezer with influence”, i.e. a dirty old man who happens to be rich. A balding schlub of a middle-aged guy batted way out of his league and landed an attractive young budding singer as a wife. The old man promises to help out her career “for favors”, hubby gets jealous and due to circumstances on the night of his murder-not shown on camera-Antoine has several suspects. They try to establish alibis but Antoine is shown to be good at his job...
It was an interesting version of a police procedural-it was also very good. The main performers all delivered, including Suzy Delair as Jenny Lamour (her name was the title used for the American release; she was also Clouzot's “companion” at the time) and famed actor/theater star Louis Jouvet as Antoine. It has fascinating characters, acres of memorable dialogue, gorgeous B&W cinematography, and even some nice music from the various performers that also work at the variety show Jenny's involved with. To reveal much more would be a crime that Antoine should investigate...
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