This is yet another chance to compare real films made by real filmmakers to the dross churned out by the new waveleteers. This well-crafted example albeit it something of a bread-and-butter title appeared in the same year as Godard's Brainless, a title widely accepted amongst the pseud-Academic axis as the start of the nouvelle vague. Fortunately 1959 was long on films of this calibre and short on dross like Brainless. Dbmonteuil has already pointed out that Delannoy was the favourite whipping-boy of the no-talent Cahiers crew and this is an opportunity to see just how fine a craftsman he was. It was Gabin's second outing as Jules Maigret and there would be one more before he called time. Although it falls a tad short of Maigret Sets A Trap, the initial outing there is still much to commend this follow up not lest Delannoy's sure-footed direction which coaxes some fine ensemble playing from his actors. Check it out.
Review of Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case
