L’Assassin Habite Au 21 (1942)
Runtime: 83 minutes
Directed by: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Starring: Pierre Fresnay, Suzy Delair, Jean Tissier, Pierre Larquey, Noel Roquevert
From: Continental Films/Liote
This was an impressive feature film debut for Henri-Georges Clouzot. The movie played on TCM late one Sunday evening last month and despite it being on the Criterion Channel, I saved some bandwidth and used the DVR instead.
A Monsieur Durand is a serial killer in Paris who literally leaves his calling card on each of his victims. Various police officers are on the manhunt; one (w/ the nickname Wens) hears a tip that Durand lives at a boardinghouse (the titular place mentioned in the title) so he cosplays as a minister to go undercover. The place has some eccentrics and there’s also Wen’s mistress who shows up… you see, this is actually a comedy along with a mystery. Thankfully, there’s plenty of dry humor and I usually at least chuckled.
Of course, it’s not great that Clouzot was said to have physically assaulted some of the actors on set (including women) to get “the right performance” or that he worked for Continental Films, which was the movie company in France at the time when it was occupied by Nazi Germany, so he worked for Nazi SOB’s… yeah, everyone involved needed work and Henri slid in at least one potshot at his overlords—it’s all unfortunate so all I’ll say is that those elements bear no impact on my rating. This was a film that while not flashy like the other Clouzot I’ve seen, always intrigued as the mystery was as satisfying as the comedy; furthermore, the idea of there being laughs to go with a serial killer story wasn’t as gauche as it may sound.
After the fact, I know it’s unfortunate that the cable guide hinted at the resolution. Le sigh…
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