Police Python 357 *** (1976, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, François Périer, Stefania Sandrelli, Mathieu Carrière) – Classic Movie Review 11,352

Husband-and-wife team Yves Montand and Simone Signoret star in director Alain Corneau’s peculiarly titled 1976 French / West German crime thriller epic Police Python 357 about intrigue and romance in the corridors of the French police.

Montand plays a police inspector, Inspecteur Marc Ferrot, tailing, and falling in love with, a mystery woman connected with his boss Commissaire Ganay (François Périer), who in turn is married to disabled Thérèse Ganay (Signoret).

[Spoiler alert] Then the mystery woman is murdered by the boss, and Ferrot is the number one suspect.

Police Python 357 is convoluted and massively too long at 165 minutes, but it is intriguingly plotted, atmospheric, stylishly made and acted with panache. Certainly these stars and co-stars François Périer, Stefania Sandrelli, Mathieu Carrière and Vadim Glowna are always more than watchable.

It is written by Daniel Boulanger (dialogue and screenplay) and Alain Corneau, based on the novel by Kenneth Fearing.

Charles Laughton stars in the outstanding 1948 Hitchcockian thriller, The Big Clock, also from a novel by Kenneth Fearing.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,352

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