Maigret voit rouge [Maigret Sees Red] **** (1963, Jean Gabin, Françoise Fabian, Roland Armontel) – Classic Movie Review 12,290

Director Gilles Grangier’s 1963 French-Italian crime film Maigret voit rouge [Maigret Sees Red] stars Jean Gabin, Françoise Fabian and Roland Armontel. Maybe it is strictly genre policier / gangster material, perhaps it is the least of Gabin’s three appearances as Commissaire Maigret, but it is still extremely capable and stands tall, with a great pulp feel and plenty of action. It’s all done and dusted in a brisk, hectic 87 minutes, with an excellent set-up to start and an exciting third act to finish.

Based on the 1951 novel Maigret, Lognon et les Gangsters [Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters] by Georges Simenon, written while he was living in Lakeville, Connecticut, it starts when a man is shot down from a car near the Gare du Nord in Paris, but by the time the policeman called to the scene gets back there, he has disappeared. It turns out that three American gangsters are in Paris to silence a French convict set to go to the US as an FBI witness against a powerful Chicago mobster.

it is Gabin’s third and last appearance as Belgian writer Georges Simenon’s fictional detective Jules Maigret, following Maigret Sets a Trap [Maigret tend un piège] (1958) and Maigret et l’affaire Saint-Fiacre (1959). Each film has an entirely different flavour, and this one is a police procedural film, with the characters in Maigret’s police station back in the frame, after the serial killer hunt story in Maigret Sets a Trap [Maigret tend un piège] and his go-it-alone trip back to his birthplace story in Maigret et l’affaire Saint-Fiacre.

For a while it seems like a good quality genre crime film. But, the quality rises as the complex, decidedly different plot and complicated, interesting characters kick in, while some well-written, colourful dialogue underpins Maigret’s various quirky confrontations and interrogations with the bad guys.

Gabin abandons the soft side of Maigret seen in Maigret et l’affaire Saint-Fiacre and the character tics he shows in his previous, fussier performances. Here he is the tough guy cop, fair, polite and honest, but ruthlessly determined, rather chilling actually, though Gabin brings charm to the chilly character. It is a quietly burning tour-de-force. Michel Constantin is an impressive tough guy adversary as American gangster Cicero, involved in an astonishing burst of fighting at the climax. Roland Armontel impresses too as old Dr Fezin, a doctor who treats the wounded criminals. Also notable are Guy Decomble as the incompetent Inspector Lognon, and as the Italian-American Pozzi (Vittorio Sanipoli), owner of The Manhattan bar, the magnet for the gangsters.

The plot is good, way more complex than the one in Maigret et l’affaire Saint-Fiacre or even the one in Maigret Sets a Trap [Maigret tend un piège], involving international gangsters, the FBI and, oh no!, the Americans. Paul Carpenter has a good role as US embassy diplomat Harry McDonald, an old acquaintance of Maigret, who may be friend of foe. Carpenter plays him ambiguously, but the idea is plain to see that the French don’t like Americans, especially Americans interfering on their turf. Needless to say, Maigret doesn’t eaxtly like the foreign gangsters, either.

Little-known French film director Gilles Grangier directs with pace and urgency, concentrating on his story and the actors, but still manages to add a few splashes on style. It is the least stylish or arty or the three movies, but it still has style. It plain, direct, punchy film-making proves an asset.

It is shot at the Billancourt Studios in Paris and on location across Paris. The sets are designed by Jacques Colombier.

Gilles Grangier (5 May 1911 – 27 April 1996) directed more than 50 films and several TV series between 1943 and 1985. He had the most number of successful films at the French box office between 1945 and 2001, with 42 films having more than 500,000 admissions, more than any other director. His film Archimède le clochard [The Magnificent Tramp] entered the 9th Berlin International Film Festival, Jean Gabin winning the Silver Bear for Best Actor.

Grangier and Gabin re-united for the 1964 French comedy film That Tender Age [L’Âge ingrat] with Gabin’s production partner Fernandel as co-star.

The cast are Jean Gabin as Jules Maigret, Françoise Fabian as Lily, Roland Armontel as Le docteur Fezin, Paul Frankeur as Bonfils, Paul Carpenter as Harry McDonald, Marcel Bozzuffi as Torrence, Guy Decomble as Lognon, Vittorio Sanipoli as Pozzo, Edward Meeks as Bill Larner, Ricky Cooper as Charlie, Michel Constantin as Cicero, Roger Dutoit as Bidoine, Carlo Nell as Le garçon du ‘Manhattan’, Charles Bouillaud as Le pharmacien Dullac, André Dalibert as Un inspecteur, Harry-Max as Curtis, Jean-Louis Le Goff as un inspecteur, Paulette Dubost as La patronne de l’hôtel, Laurence Badie as Lucienne, and Jacques Dynam as un inspecteur.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,290

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