User Reviews

After watching about 30 Maigret episodes played by Bruno Cremer, this episode would be amongst the favorites. The story is situated on a beautiful French island, which is a nice counterweight for the occasionally darkish mood of this series. Inspector Pike, the visiting colleague from Scotland Yard adds subtle humor to the episode, by his appearance and rusty French. The daily, domestic scenes at the hotel which is the center of events are typically French. Typically, Maigret patiently moves within the group of possible suspects, seemingly without hurry or stress, and when the plot builds, rounds up affairs in a strong and confident manner. The plots of Simenon's Maigrets usually are not extremely surprising or complicated - it is the slow yet steadfast working towards recognizing the culprit amongst the people he meets, that gives these episodes their special mood and quality - if it's 'your thing' you will probably like most episodes (like millions of French people did for many years) - if not, you'll probably switch off after 10 minutes or so.

Set on a beautiful island somewhere in the South of France, where a local informs Maigret that one comes for a week, and never leaves.

A leisurely unfolding mystery to match the scenery.

One of the added bonuses of this episode is an early appearance by the beautiful and talented Sara Martins. This episode was filmed in 2001. 10 years later, Sara would star in "Death in Paradise", and later several other European television mysteries--always a captivating and intelligent presence.

Here Sara plays Jojo, a barely of age--if that--pretty young black girl, the only maid at a small hotel on the island.

Jojo attracts the attention of many men on the island--and is jealously looked after by the hotel owner, whose relationship with Jojo is obscure. Jojo knew the murdered victim and secretly talks to Maigret.

Part of the enjoyment of this episode is trying to figure out the relationships on this lazy island. Several shady characters live and operate seemingly legitimate businesses--but Maigret suspects otherwise.

What a beautiful place-an island off the coast of France--with beautiful men and woman, conniving men and women, and a murderer. Maigret arrives to investigate. And why Maigret? Because the man murdered had made a point of telling people that Maigret was his friend. Yet even with this claim of friendship someone murders him. Or is he murdered because of his friendship with Maigret?

The murdered man was a longtime local, known to everyone on the island. Who among the locals would want him dead? There's a painter. The painter's girlfriend. Jo-Jo, a young woman who works at the café. An elderly couple. A young man working as the assistant to the wife of that elderly couple. There's a fisherman. Also, a woman from Maigret's past. And the hotel owner. Maigret will observe them. He will chat with them. And eventually the clue appears.

This is a fun episode and a nice change of locale for this series. The filmmakers remained faithful to George Simenon's novel with the changes between book and film being incidental. I think you'll enjoy this one if you like Maigret mysteries.

Saw this on the Talking Pictures channel (UK, old films and TV). They had previously shown the 1960s series (50+ episodes, BBC, B&W) featuring Rupert Davies, a generally acclaimed Maigret.

We've also seen the excellent 12 episodes (2 series) that ITV did (90s) with Michael Gambon as Maigret (terrific portrayal) and the less successful later efforts with Rowan Atkinson in the lead.

This Cremer version is of course French, with subtitles, but they are not too wordy, so fairly easy to follow. Also very French, lots of atmosphere, meaningful looks, thoughtful silences.

I see some reviews refer to how faithful this version is to the books, a ludicrous statement in one respect, as Lucas, his main assistant in all the books I've seen, has almost completely disappeared!

I haven't liked all the episodes so far of this Cremer version, but THIS one is WONDERFUL, Maigret has to puzzle out what caused a murder amongst an oddball group who spend much of their time - well, certainly the summer -- lazing in the sun off the south coast (filmed at Porquerolles). Unusually he has a Scotland Yard inspector following him - to learn from his methods -- as well as his nephew, who the producers seem to have decided is now his long-term assistant (sorry Lucas, pushed aside again?!).

The other present reviews (inc Spears and Whalen) have outlined the story, and the assorted characters, very well. Maigret points out to the visiting English detective that he really has no 'method', other than to plod about chatting in an almost friendly way about who knows who, why are they on the island, how did people get on with the deceased, etc.

He gradually extracts little snippets of info from the cast of characters, gets some background details from Paris (despite complaining how long it will take), then spots that a nosy telephonist (who puts all the calls through to and from the island -- this IS the 1950s!) has a secret hobby of listening to the calls!

The victim had suddenly boasted of a chance to make some big money, and it seems he had also suddenly taken an interest in art.

With the victim turning out to have been killed by a bullet from the same gun involved in an earlier murder, a case that featured another character of the island's summer residents, Maigret gets two birds in one. The episode is a great example of Maigret at work, not quite typical as most of his cases are generally in the grey and sometimes rainy confines of Paris!