Quai Des Orfevres [DVD] [1947]

Is it a murder mystery? Is it a police procedural? Is it a back-stage look at seedy French music halls? Quai des Orfevres is all of these, but more than anything else it's an amusing comedy of infidelity, jealousy and love, set in post-WWII Paris. It may be surprising that Henri-Georges Clouzot, the director of such grim films as Le Corbeau or such suspenseful nail-biters as Diabolique and The Wages of Fear, is the director of this one. Clouzot, however, was a shrewd film-maker. "In a murder mystery," he tells us, 'there's an element of playfulness. It's never totally realistic. In this I share Hitchcock's view, which says, 'A murder mystery is a slice of cake with raisins and candied fruit, and if you deny yourself this, you might as well film a documentary.'" Quai des Orfevres is a wonderful film, and it's no documentary.

Jenny Martineau (Suzy Delair) is an ambitious singer at music halls and supper clubs. She's a flirt, she's sees nothing too wrong with using a bit of sex as well as talent to get a contract. Her stage name is Jenny Latour. And she really loves her husband, Maurice Martineau (Bernard Blier). Martineau is something of a sad sack. He's her accompanist and arranger. He's a bit balding, a bit chubby and jealous to a fault. Then we have their neighbor, the photographer Dora Monnier (Simone Renant). She's blond, gorgeous (think of Rita Hayworth) and capable. She and Martineau have been friends since they were children together. Dora, however, is definitely not thinking just of friendship when she looks at Jenny. Then comes along Georges Brignon (Charles Dullin), a wizened, rich and dirty old man, who often has Dora take "art" photographs of his young female proteges whom he poses himself. He offers a contract for a film to Jenny, and suggests a dinner at his home to discuss the details. Jenny is more than willing. Maurice is furious and forbids it. Jenny shouts right back at him, "You're jealous of the rich! Well, I want my share of their dough. I'm all for royalty!" "You're dad was a laborer," Maurice shouts back. "So what? Under Louis XV, I'd have been Madame de Pompadour! I'd have heated up their tights!"

And after Brignon is found dead with a smashed champagne bottle next to his bleeding skull, there's Dora to try to make things safe for Jenny. But wait. Inspector Antoine gets the case. Antoine (Louis Jouvet) is a tall, tired, middle-aged bachelor with sore feet. He has seen it all. He served in "the colonies" with the Foreign Legion and returned with an adopted baby and malaria. The child is now about eight-years old and Antoine dotes on him. One of the first things Antoine discovers is not only did someone brain Brignon with a bottle, someone shot him in the heart. Who did it? Before long Jenny, Maurice and Dora all are making up alibis, lying and, at one or another point, confessing. How will Antoine discover the murderer? Will we have a chance to see some great music hall songs sung by Jenny Latour? Everything becomes clear, but only with time and Detective Antoine's persistence. We are left with many kinds of love leading to all kinds of motives, from hair-trigger jealousy to longing glances...and all played with a nice mixture of Gallic amusement.

Clouzot takes us to a Paris of seedy but not threatening neighborhoods, to downtrodden music publishers where tunes are played on the piano for buyers, to restaurants with discrete private dining rooms. Most of all, he takes us to the music hall where Jenny Latour often performs. We can see Jenny as she sings, with couples in the seats and single men wearing their coats and hats in standing room. And everyone smokes. The first third of the film, in fact, takes place largely in this milieu. With Jenny singing about "Her petite tra-la-la, her sweet tra-la-la," we follow her from trying out the song at the publishers to a rehearsal to a saucy performance with Jenny in a feathered hat, a corset, gartered stockings and not much else.

Delair, Blier and Renant all do wonderful jobs, but it Louis Jouvet who holds everything together. He was a marvelous actor who disliked making films. The stage was his world, and he took on films only if he happened to like the director and to make money to finance his stage work. Jouvet was tall with a long face and broad cheekbones. He was not conventionally handsome but he had what it takes to dominate a scene. For a look at how skillfully he could play comedy, watch him in Drole de Drame. He's a fascinating actor. At one point he says, "I've taken a liking to you, Miss Dora Monnier." "Me?" she asks. "Yes. Because you and I are two of a kind. When it comes to women, we'll never have a chance." Jouvet brings all kinds of nuances to that line, from rueful regret to a gentle amusement.

I can't speak for this Optimum release in terms of transfer clarity but I've had good luck with others of theirs. The region 1 transfer from Criterion is excellent. At the price Amazon is offering this for, it's well worth a gamble.

I have recently watched and enjoyed 36 ("Quai des Orrfevres" ) with Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil. This reminded me of a film "Quai des Orfevres"that adults round me when I was a child were enthusing about in the late 1940s. I decided to purchase "Quai des Orfevres", which is a product of its time. It stars Louis Jouvet, an actor well-liked in his time. Seen in its context the film is very enjoyable: the style of acting, the way that the story enfolds with its many changes of direction, the quality of the filming and acting are all there to those interested in French films (of that era and beyond) or those with an open mind about what makes good cinema.

This film is not only very good, but for me is very sympathetic. The cold, the rain, the imperfect bad figures and faces of the post- war, with ugly, marked traces in his bodies owing to hunger, privations and sufferance. Bad tobacco and cheap wine substituted by then the scarce food. I knew all that as some zones from Madrid were similar to that old Paris.
The plot is a police case, but although contains a murder, has many comedy facets. There's a sort of light cabaret when the show is a mixture of spicy vedettes, some numbers of clowns, acrobats, etc. Jenny Lamour, a woman of dubious past morality want to triumph. She sings and dances provocatively. However she's in love with his husband, a poor pianist played by Bernard Blier. Jenny Lamour needs from time to time some photos in order to enhance his career. For that there's Dora, a daring figure by 1947, as she's clearly a lesbian. Dora makes her money must of all photographing nude women and loves Jenny.
The show of Jenny Lamour is seen by Mr Brignon, a luscious rich old man, good client of the nude or semi- pornographic photographs from Dora. He desires Jenny and also possess a luxurious car, and one night all these facts had to coincide and Brignon is murdered at home. He's shot and hit with a champagne bottle. The deadly shots are from a stupid car thief, and the hits of the bottle from Jenny Lamour, but his jealous husband also goes there with a gun. Dora, the photographer, knowing all that and in clear love with Jenny, also goes to delete proofs of the crime.
But all this complicate plot is solved by extraordinary wisdom and experience of inspector Antoine, a middle aged man wounded in the war and who has adopted a child from the African French colonies, summing up, a good sympathetic policeman plenty of intelligence. Inspector Antoine works at Quai de Orfevres, headquarters of Paris police, and patiently, he solves the crime forgetting perhaps voluntarily some dark human details as this policeman is very human. "Both you and me haven't chance with women", says sarcastically to the lesbian Dora. Surely by these times, Dora was qualified officially as a delinquent, but inspector Antoine lets go human weaknesses, not real crimes so, the real murderer and his chief, a car dealer are arrested.
The ambiance of this crime film is lively and full of charming details.