He
is often called “Inspector,” but Jules Maigret was in fact the Commissioner of
the Paris Major Crimes Division. He is a sleuth, but also a bureaucrat. Some of
the least dashing actors in history have played Maigret. In 1958, Jean Gabin
still exuded plenty of screen presence, but it had a jaded world-weary edge
that still suited Georges Simenon’s famous detective. When a serial killer
starts goading him, the Commissioner goads him right back in Jean Delannoy’s
nifty film noir, Maigret Sets a Trap (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.
A
ripper-style killer stalking full-figured brunettes has half the Parisian force
on the streets, but when they still do not reach his latest body quickly
enough, he leaves a message for “Monsieur” Maigret via a police call box. That “Mr.”
business really sticks in the Commissioner’s craw. Recognizing his quarry’s
arrogance, Maigret recruits a small-time informer to play it up big when he is
arrested for the killer’s murders. He then floods the Fourth Arrondissement with
decoys drawn from the police clerical pool to draw out the real killer under
the watchful eyes of their back-up units.
It
very nearly works, but the killer manages to slip away. Yet, the circumstances
of his escape may yet give him away. However, their biggest break comes through
chance. Ordered to follow anyone suspicious watching Maigret’s media circus,
Det. Lagrume tails a very out-of-place and well-to-do housewife to an
assignation with a gigolo that she seems weirdly disinterested in. It is not
much to go on, but when Maigret pays a visit to Madame Yvonne Maurin and her
squirrely husband Jean, Marcel, he immediately starts giving the couple the
Columbo treatment.
During
the course of Maigret, viewers learn
all about the 1950s network of police call boxes in Paris and get a tutoring in
criminal psychology and the dangers of over-indulgent parenting. Like many
great film noirs, it has a real vintage modern feel, as well as a bountiful
helping of nocturnal Parisian ambiance. In fact, Maigret would pair up nicely with other classic French noirs, even
including the granddaddy of them all, Rififi.
Gabin
is a terrific Maigret pitching his flinty interpretation of the Commissioner
somewhere between the larger-than-life Charles Laughton in The Man on the Eiffel Tower and the down-trodden Harry Baur in A Man’s Neck. For extra-added
steeliness, Lino Ventura appears in the relatively minor role as Inspector
Torrence, one of Maigret’s “Faithful Four.” Again, like the best noir crime
dramas, Maigret is fully stocked with
colorful supporting performances, including Olivier Hussenot as the nebbish
Lagrume and Gérard Séty as the sleazy ladies’ man, Jojo Vacher.