Louis Jouvet is a Parisian police inspector investigating one murder when his dopy assistant tells him of another, a man who could be his twin. Jouvet goes to the dead man's apartment and when one of the victim's associates turns up, he is mistaken for the man. To investigate, Jouvet impersonates the dead man, and finds himself in the middle of an underworld of thieves, prostitutes, homosexual guns-for-hire and intrigue.
Writer/Director Henri Decoin was a commercially successful figure in French cinema for more than thirty years and worked with many well-remembered stars -- he was married to Dannielle Darrieux for half a dozen years. The quality of his works varied enormously, but he certainly shows the seamy side of Paris in this movie, and even if Jouvet goes through the entire movie acting as if he is suffering from an ulcer, in the end he gives one of his telling performances. Like the other well-known directors of French noir, Decoin showed a dirtier world than most American directors, still operating under the Production Code, could get away with, and the result is far more telling.
Writer/Director Henri Decoin was a commercially successful figure in French cinema for more than thirty years and worked with many well-remembered stars -- he was married to Dannielle Darrieux for half a dozen years. The quality of his works varied enormously, but he certainly shows the seamy side of Paris in this movie, and even if Jouvet goes through the entire movie acting as if he is suffering from an ulcer, in the end he gives one of his telling performances. Like the other well-known directors of French noir, Decoin showed a dirtier world than most American directors, still operating under the Production Code, could get away with, and the result is far more telling.