The Man on the Eiffel Tower *** (1949, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone, Burgess Meredith) – Classic Movie Review 8765

Director Burgess Meredith’s 1949 The Man on the Eiffel Tower is an often tensely suspense-filled mystery thriller, based on the 1931 Georges Simenon novel La Tête d’un Homme or A Battle of Nerves (his fifth Maigret book, already filmed in France in 1933 under its original title).The Man on the Eiffel Tower is the first American film to be shot wholly in colour in Paris.

It stars Charles Laughton as Inspector Maigret, a canny Parisian cop dogging an ingeniously clever murderer, down and out medical student Johann Radek (Franchot Tone), who has been paid by Bill Kirby (Robert Hutton) to murder his wealthy aunt but is likely to escape for lack of proof. Burgess Meredith also stars as Joseph Heurtin, the knife grinder who is suspected of the murder.

Laughton may not make an obvious Maigret, but the enjoyably ripe and eccentric performances, Stanley Cortez’s rich Ansco Color cinematography and the impactful, atmospheric authentic French exterior shooting help Meredith to deliver a largely pleasing début as director.

Also in the cast are Jean Wallace, Patricia Roc, Belita, George Thorpe, William Phipps, William Cottrell, Chaz Chase, Wilfrid Hyde White and Howard Vernon.

The original director was producer Irving Allen, but three days into the shoot Laughton threatened to quit if Meredith did not take over. Laughton directs the scenes in which Meredith appears.

Unsurprisingly, Allen was dissatisfied with the result and he bought the film rights back from original US distributors RKO and kept the prints out of circulation for a long time. It was long thought to be a lost movie, but it has been released on VHS and DVD, and two colour prints eventually were found, one in the 1980s and one in the estate of Burgess Meredith, who died in 1997. The film was restored as a mixture of the best surviving elements from both prints and recently screened on the UK Talking Pictures TV channel.

The City of Paris is billed as the film’s fifth star. It was shot in Paris and in the studio in Paris Studios Cinéma, Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, and Joinville, Haute-Marne, France.

Julia Child met Meredith and Tone at the restaurant Les Deux Magots, where they were filming.

The Man on the Eiffel Tower is directed by Burgess Meredith, runs 97 minutes, is made by A&T Film Production (Allen-Tone) and Gray-Film, is released by RKO Radio Pictures (1949) (US) and Independent Film Distributors (1950) (UK), is written by Harry Brown, based on the 1931 Georges Simenon novel La Tête d’un Homme or A Battle of Nerves, is shot in Anscocolor by Stanley Cortez, is produced by Irving Allen and Franchot Tone, is scored by Michel Michelet and Constantin Bakaleinokoff (musical director) and is designed by René Renoux.

Miss Roc and Miss Wallace’s hats are by Paulette.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8765

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