La tête d'un homme (1933) is the third film to feature Georges Simenon’s famous detective Inspector Jules Maigret, but it never played commercially in the United States. The depiction of a seedy Montmartre café populated by prostitutes, gamblers and homosexuals, and a leading character’s clear cohabitation with his mistress would have made it impossible to obtain a Production Code seal after 1935, and the film wasn’t sensational enough to have been profitable on the grindhouse circuit. Yet, the rediscovery of this early Julien Duvivier film in recent years has revealed it to be a solid suspense film with echoes of Expressionism and early hints of film noir through Duvivier’s exaggerated use of shadows. A playboy (Gaston Jacquet) at the café expresses his wish that a wealthy aunt would die so he could inherit her fortune. He’s overheard by nihilistic Czech émigré (Valéry Inkijinoff) who takes him up on it and then pins the crime on a dim-witted laborer. The police are happy with what seems like an open-and-shut case except for Maigret (Harry Baur), who lets the framed man escape, hoping to follow him to the real culprit. As in TV’s Columbo, the identity of the killer is known from almost the start. The suspense is in watching the detective seemingly bumble through the investigation until the killer slips up. Simenon had been unhappy with earlier screen versions of his books and originally planned to adapt his fifth Maigret novel himself, starring Pierre Renoir, the screen’s first Maigret (in his brother Jean Renoir’s 1932 Night at the Crossroads). When Duvivier took over, he insisted on casting Baur but kept Simenon’s choice for the killer, Soviet émigré Inkijinoff, most famous as the star of Vsevolod Pudovkin’s Storm Over Asia (1928). It was an inspired choice, as he and Baur make an electric pair of antagonists. The story would be remade by Burgess Meredith as The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949), with Charles Laughton as Maigret, Meredith as the framed man and Franchot Tone as the killer.
by Frank Miller
La Tete d'un Homme
Brief Synopsis
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Willy Ferriere is dead broke and his mistress costs a lot. One day, he says in a pub that he would give 100,000 francs to get rid of his wealthy aunt. Someone lets him know it's a deal. The aunt is murdered, and a poor chap is manipulated to be the perfect suspect. But Superintendant Maigret feels something is wrong.
Cast & Crew
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Julien Duvivier
Director
Harry Baur
Valery Inkijinoff
Alexandre Rignault
Charles Delac
Producer
Julien Duvivier
Screenwriter
Film Details
Also Known As
Man's Neck, A
Genre
Crime
Foreign
Thriller
Release Date
1933
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 30m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Synopsis
Willy Ferriere is dead broke and his mistress costs a lot. One day, he says in a pub that he would give 100,000 francs to get rid of his wealthy aunt. Someone lets him know it's a deal. The aunt is murdered, and a poor chap is manipulated to be the perfect suspect. But Superintendant Maigret feels something is wrong.
Director
Julien Duvivier
Director
Film Details
Also Known As
Man's Neck, A
Genre
Crime
Foreign
Thriller
Release Date
1933
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 30m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Articles
La tete d'un homme
La tete d'un homme
La tête d'un homme (1933) is the third film to feature Georges Simenon’s famous detective Inspector Jules Maigret, but it never played commercially in the United States. The depiction of a seedy Montmartre café populated by prostitutes, gamblers and homosexuals, and a leading character’s clear cohabitation with his mistress would have made it impossible to obtain a Production Code seal after 1935, and the film wasn’t sensational enough to have been profitable on the grindhouse circuit. Yet, the rediscovery of this early Julien Duvivier film in recent years has revealed it to be a solid suspense film with echoes of Expressionism and early hints of film noir through Duvivier’s exaggerated use of shadows. A playboy (Gaston Jacquet) at the café expresses his wish that a wealthy aunt would die so he could inherit her fortune. He’s overheard by nihilistic Czech émigré (Valéry Inkijinoff) who takes him up on it and then pins the crime on a dim-witted laborer. The police are happy with what seems like an open-and-shut case except for Maigret (Harry Baur), who lets the framed man escape, hoping to follow him to the real culprit. As in TV’s Columbo, the identity of the killer is known from almost the start. The suspense is in watching the detective seemingly bumble through the investigation until the killer slips up. Simenon had been unhappy with earlier screen versions of his books and originally planned to adapt his fifth Maigret novel himself, starring Pierre Renoir, the screen’s first Maigret (in his brother Jean Renoir’s 1932 Night at the Crossroads). When Duvivier took over, he insisted on casting Baur but kept Simenon’s choice for the killer, Soviet émigré Inkijinoff, most famous as the star of Vsevolod Pudovkin’s Storm Over Asia (1928). It was an inspired choice, as he and Baur make an electric pair of antagonists. The story would be remade by Burgess Meredith as The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949), with Charles Laughton as Maigret, Meredith as the framed man and Franchot Tone as the killer.by Frank Miller
