Just as 'Voici les temps des assassins' is Julien Duvivier's best film of the fifties, this must surely be his finest of the forties. I would go so far as to say this is one of the greatest films made by any director in any decade.
This adaptation by Charles Spaak of Georges Simenon's novel of 1933 differs slightly from the original novel in which Monsieur Hire is a petty crook of Jewish origin who is under police surveillance for the murder of a young prostitute. In this version he is a highly intelligent, bookish, unsociable loner. This of course makes him an obvious target for the petty, small-minded mediocrities who inhabit the town. Made so soon after the end of the German occupation this film is redolent of collaboration, denunciation and scapegoating. One of the most terrifying of lines is spoken by the loud mouthed, rabble-rousing butcher: 'If there is a black sheep in the flock you slaughter it'.
Even by Michel Simon's standards his characterisation of the kind and tragically misunderstood Monsieur Hire is superlative and represents film acting at its very best. Viviane Romance and Paul Bernard excel as the utterly loathsome Alice and Alfred whose machinations cause his downfall. Technically the film is faultless with never a wasted shot and building to a thrilling climax. Mention must be made of Duvivier's preferred editor Marthe Poncin. Behind the camera is Nicholas Hayer who also shot that other masterpiece of mob misrule 'Le Corbeau'. Like Clouzot's film this is dark and deeply cynical and reflects Duvivier's own view 'that we are far from people who love each other'. If any film deserves full marks then it must surely be this.
Review of Panique
