Movies »Quai des Orfevres

Quai Des Orfevres Clouzot was considered the French Hitchcock and many say he is even more skillful at stylized suspense. Every movie I have seen of his backs this claim, but this week I am recommending one of his rare comedies. Well, dark comedy, but still it doesn't end half as heavily as Les Diaboliques (which is also brilliant, by the way) but it's still tense and a dynamite who-dun-it.

This procedural concerns infidelity, namely lots of innuendo between a tarty vixen named Jenny and a lecherous millionaire named Brignon, who winds up dead. But who did it? Was it Jenny's husband? Or Dora, the lesbian friend wears a sweater with her name on it and adores Jenny as well? Or did Jenny hit him over the head a bit too hard when he got to fresh and commit the murder herself?

Only an exhausted cop with an adopted son will crack the case when he brings in all the suspects for interrogation. The camera work that glides through the streets and backstages of Paris is wonderful and can be seen for all it?s glory in the Criterion Collection DVD.


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Posted on January 15, 2007

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