In the second movie in wich Kean Delannoy directed Jean Gabin as Maigret, we have a serial killer who has struck four times. Maigret doesn't have a clue, so he attempts to replicate the circumstances with policewomen who resemble the victims. When that fails, he performs a 'reconstruction' and has plainclothesmen follow the people who crowd to watch. This leads him to Anne Giradot, who is married to interior decorator Jean Desailly, the son of widowed Lucienne Bogaert; she owns the building which houses the butcher shop whence the murder weapon was stolen.
Gabin is considered the gold standard of Maigrets, in no small part because he was one of France's great movie stars for decades. More than that, he inhabits Maigret well: aging, weary, fat, he climbs stairs with a slow tread and looks upon his job with a combination of satisfaction and disgust. Even as he is admired, almost venerated by his staff, he has grown old and tired, and knows it. He considers retiring, until he get a letter from the killer when he 'arrests' a decoy.
Delannoy is considered a competent and commercial director, and this movie is a good example of his work. He has a highly capable cast, knows it, and is content with blocking and pacing, and lets them have their heads when it comes to performances. The bourgeois world in which this movie take place is well shown, from the back alleys of the butcher shop to the high rise in which Desailly and Mlle Giradot live. It is that bourgeouisie, with its striving for a slightly higher standing, that Delannoy, and Simeon have utter contempt. It is only the hopeful competence of his staff, and the calm, loving sniping of Jeanne Boitel as his wife that keeps him going.
It is not, of course, the Maigret of past and future versions, not the thoughtful Pierre Renoir, nor the almost Mycroft-Holmes-like Harry Baur. He is human, he is fallible, and forced to act faster than he would like, he makes mistakes. Those failures humanize more than others might like. It pleases me.
Gabin is considered the gold standard of Maigrets, in no small part because he was one of France's great movie stars for decades. More than that, he inhabits Maigret well: aging, weary, fat, he climbs stairs with a slow tread and looks upon his job with a combination of satisfaction and disgust. Even as he is admired, almost venerated by his staff, he has grown old and tired, and knows it. He considers retiring, until he get a letter from the killer when he 'arrests' a decoy.
Delannoy is considered a competent and commercial director, and this movie is a good example of his work. He has a highly capable cast, knows it, and is content with blocking and pacing, and lets them have their heads when it comes to performances. The bourgeois world in which this movie take place is well shown, from the back alleys of the butcher shop to the high rise in which Desailly and Mlle Giradot live. It is that bourgeouisie, with its striving for a slightly higher standing, that Delannoy, and Simeon have utter contempt. It is only the hopeful competence of his staff, and the calm, loving sniping of Jeanne Boitel as his wife that keeps him going.
It is not, of course, the Maigret of past and future versions, not the thoughtful Pierre Renoir, nor the almost Mycroft-Holmes-like Harry Baur. He is human, he is fallible, and forced to act faster than he would like, he makes mistakes. Those failures humanize more than others might like. It pleases me.