Quai des Orfèvres **** (1947, Louis Jouvet, Bernard Blier, Suzy Delair, Pierre Larquey, Simone Renant, Charles Dullin) – Classic Movie Review 6642

The 36, quai des Orfèvres, the headquarters of the Paris criminal police.

Co-writer/ director Henri-Georges Clouzot’s beautifully acted and exquisitely crafted 1947 French policier thriller Quai des Orfrèvres is outstanding even in a genre the French regularly do so well.

In Paris’s equivalent to Scotland Yard, the 36, quai des Orfèvres, the headquarters of the Paris criminal police, Louis Jouvet’s sardonic detective Inspector Antoine battles with a head cold and the complexities of the intimate case of Maurice Martineau (Bernard Blier), a music-hall pianist in a troubled marriage.

Martineau is a jealous, pathetic husband facing the gallows for killing the lecherous old businessman called Brignon (Charles Dullin) he believed to be making love to his ambitious wife Jenny Lamour (Suzy Delair), seeming to canoodle with Brignon in her determination to pursue her music-hall theatre career as a chanteuse. He is murdered the same night Jenny goes to a secret rendezvous at his apartment.

It also co-stars Pierre Larquey, Simone Renant as Dora Monier and Jacques Grétillat as Auguste.

Director Clouzot takes care of the chills while embroidering the tall tale with authentic details of police procedure, human oddities and the tawdry splendour of the French music-hall world.

The screenplay by Clouzot and Jean Ferry is based on the Belgian murder mystery novel Légitime Défense by Stanislas-André Steeman. They based the film only on their memory of reading the out of print novel and so deviated significantly from its original story.

It is shot in black and white by Armand Thirard, produced by Roger de Venloo and scored by Francis Lopez.

The female lead role was written specially for Suzy Delair, Clouzot’s then romantic partner.

It was Clouzot’s comeback film – his first in four years – after being banned from film-making following the release Le Corbeau [The Raven] (1943) because of his collaboration with the German-owned company Continental Films.

It is also a comeback film for Clouzot’s friend Jouvet, who stipulated a flexible shooting schedule and that some of Jouvet’s theatre troupe members would be in the film. So Clouzot cast Leo Lapara as one of Antoine’s colleagues and Fernand René as the music hall director.

It is the last film appearance for Dullin, who died in 1949.

Quai des Orfèvres is released in a new 4K restoration on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on 5 March 2018, along with Clouzot’s Le Corbeau [The Raven] (1943) and La Prisonniére [Woman in Chains] (1968).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6642

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