Brelan d'as (1952) User Reviews

A pair ,more like!

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 7 April 2021]

A movie made of three sketches , two of which are pleasant ,the third is a throwaway.

A stroll into the streets of Paris leads-somewhat whimsically - into the stories: a well-meaning mature gentleman and a distinguished lady are browsing through the detective stories of an old book store ;and on with the show !

Segment 1 :"Mr Wens' alibi ";from Stanislas André Steeman who provided Henri -Georges Clouzot with two masterpieces "l'assassin habite au 21" and " Quai des orfèvres" ,is now a bit forgotten and it's certainly unfair for his short story ,here ,is a crime in an enclosed place John Dickson Carr would not disown.

Plot : Mr Wens meets a wealthy woman's husband in his apartment :she was victim of several murder attempt and her heir (she wants to divorce) is the main suspect ;but as he's leaving the place, the private eye finds the wife's body in the elevator; the concierge sees nobody but her entering the place and the husband was with Mr Wens, a solid alibi.

Witty dialog and the cabaret scene spares us the suggestive dances and instead, the viewer rejoices in the female impersonator act (the imitation of Gaby Morlay is very successful ). With a little help from Commissaire Malaise (another Steeman hero) and famous Commissaire Maigret (not appearing in the flesh) , Mr Wens (a distinguished Raymond Rouleau)will resolve the riddle .

Segment two : "I'm the tender kind" : by far the weakest link of the movie;Peter Cheney ,Lemmy Caution ,it has not aged well and they did not even hire Eddie Constantine ,who could have saved something from the wreckage .

Plot :Hot on the heels of a gangster ,Lemmy Caution has to frustrate two women's tricks in their plans .

Dreadful stuff.

Segment 3:an altar's boy's testimony. Georges Simenon was,by far ,the most adapted writer (from Renoir to Duvivier to Hathaway)of the lot .His short story focuses on the relationship between a middle -age commissaire Maigret and a brat :one never knows the motive of the crime and almost nothing about the murderer......

Plot :going to church ,a kid sees a sinister-looking guy pulling a dead body ; the criminal threatens the witness: "if you talk to the police, I'll cut your throat and your mother's too. Terrified,in the church , the altar's boy faints ;in the police station, he tells what he 's seen, but nobody wants to believe till Commissaire Maigret intervenes.

And the movie becomes a depiction of the human relations between a grumpy man and a scared little boy ; Maigret's authoritarian missus appears ,which is as rare in the movies as Mrs Colombo in the TV series;suffering from a cold, the famous sleuth investigates in his bed whilst his wife places cupping glasses on him! Michel Simon is true to form ,and excellent as ever ;Christian Fourcade ,the little boy,is superbly directed and never hams it up.

Two good sketches out of three,it's a worthwhile percentage ; trust Henri Verneuil whose know-how can't be questionable.

"The Testimony of the Altar Boy": Michel Simon wonderful in a lacklustre adaptation of a first-rate Simenon story

[mdjedovic · 5/10 · 8 August 2021]

The third and final segment of this omnibus film, "The Testimony of the Altar Boy" is, somewhat unusually, based on one of Georges Simenon's finest short stories instead of on one of his novels. Still featuring the dedicated commissaire Maigret in the lead, it is a wonderful story about how Maigret gently teases out the truth about a murder from the titular altar boy and how a tender friendship develops between this precocious child and child-like adult.

This film adaptation, sadly, is significantly lacking both due to Jacques Companéez's adaptation and Henri Verneuil's direction. Starting with the latter, the film begins, unlike the story, by revealing not only who the killer is but also how the murder was committed which is the central mystery of the story. Of course, none of Simenon's Maigrets is truly a detective story in the sense that the answer to the mystery is the sole point of interest but by revealing it so early, Companéez robs the story of any potential for a final twist and also of all its dramatic momentum.

There is also a misguided attempt to imbue this witty and meditative story with suspense, I suspect in order to make it fit better with the other two segments in the film based on more action-packed works. Thus, the segment ends with a chase through the streets of Paris and a shootout both of which feel utterly out of place in a Simenon story.

Verneuil's direction is disappointingly flat-footed. It is technically sound, utterly adequate and utterly boring. Comprised almost entirely of lengthy wide shots in which actors stand and deliver their lines for what seems like ages, the segment drags on even with its 30-minute runtime. Companéez must take part of the blame, of course, for his overly talky script, but Verneuil fails to give any of the scenes dramatic urgency or energy. They all proceed at the same unhurried and listless pace, without atmosphere or even humour. Simenon's perceptive characterisations are simplified to base stereotypes and the point of the story, about how all adults eventually revert to childhood, is completely lost, surviving only as a sight gag in one of the seemingly endless scenes.

There is also no attempt at making Simenon's characters come alive on screen even when the author himself gives them wonderfully eccentric and amusing characteristics. In the short story, the character of the judge is almost surreally funny, wrapped in a blanket in a sauna-like room. Adding coles to the fire surrounded by walls covered in books. His only amusement in old age is to scoff at the young altar boy as he passes by his window. In the film, he is merely an old man in a wheelchair without any of the eccentricities from the story. The wonderful atmosphere of his room and the scene in which Maigret tries to catches him out in a lie is completely lost.

None of this, I hasten to add, is the fault of the actors who are uniformly excellent. Especially wonderful are Maigret and the altar boy played, respectively, by Michel Simon and Christian Fourcade. Simon is, I'd even go as far as to say, one of the best screen Maigrets. His warm, witty, commanding presence absolutely perfect for the part of the indefatigable commissaire. I wish he'd played him more often and in better movies. Also wonderful is Claire Olivier as the overbearing Mme Maigret and the two of them develop an enjoyable and believable rapport. But the segment centres on the scene between Maigret and the boy and Simon and Fourcade are wonderful together. Effortlessly, Fourcade brings out the grown-up seriousness in the altar boy and Simon the childishness in the commissaire.

But, the wonderful cast and terrific source material are failed by a misguided adaptation and lacklustre direction. If the other two segments are as lacking as "The Testimony of the Altar Boy", I understand why "Full House" is a forgotten Henri Verneuil film.

The old man and the little boy

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 8/10 · 15 April 2021]

It's a pleasure to discover this rarity in fabulous restoration. I didn't expect any good stuff from Cheyney's Lemmy Caution sketch, and it's a waste of time, the actor didn't convince me and the character Lemmy isn't developed, really boring. I expected more from Steeman who provided Clouzot's masterpieces, and Raymond Rouleau is really convincing as Wens, even if I've seen him more dynamic in that kind of character as Georges Masse. But the very best sketch of this rarity is obviously Michel Simon as Maigret. And it works well, he's another Maigret, not punchy as Gabin, but really empathetic with the kid, and that's a success. Some shots made me think of Julien Duvivier and Christian Jaque.

I give an 8 note mostly for this sketch.

A few months ago, on Bertrand Tavernier's blog, there was a discussion on the different Maigret, and no one had seen this version with Michel Simon, and I think of Bertrand Tavernier immediately saying his legendary "I have to check this".

If you like French murder movies in sketches, I advise "Suivez cet homme".