QUAI DES ORFÈVRES (1947)

Music hall singer Jenny Lamour is married to her piano player Maurice who is hang-doggedly jealous of all the male attention she gets—Jenny's director calls him Othello. Dora is an old friend of Maurice's and a professional photographer who has her name embroidered in huge letters on all her blouses; she seems to harbor an unrequited crush on Jenny. Dora does work for the sleazy hunchbacked producer Brignon who brings a stream of pretty female hopefuls in to be photographed, mostly for his pleasure we assume. When Jenny meets Brignon for dinner, in theory to discuss a career opportunity, Maurice barges into the restaurant and makes a scene, threatening to kill Brignon. We're not sure if Jenny would resort to trading sex for career favors, but she does make plans behind Maurice's back to visit Brignon in his apartment, telling Maurice she is making an overnight visit to her sick grandmother. At the apartment, Brignon makes aggressive advances and Jenny conks him over the head with a champagne bottle, apparently killing him. She goes to Dora, tells her the whole story, and realizes she has left her fur coat behind, so Dora volunteers to go get it. Unknown to them, Maurice, who doesn’t believe Jenny's story about her grandma, heads over to Brignon's place, being careful to be seen by people at Jenny's theater so he will have an alibi. When he gets there, he finds Brignon already dead, and a shadowy figure steals Maurice's car. The next day, Inspector Antoine is on the case, suspecting everyone and realizing that all of them are hiding something.

This French film noir, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (Diabolique), works best in its first half as it sets up the characters, the conflicts and the ensuing dramas. Once the cops get involved, much of the tension dissipates and it becomes a fairly traditional police melodrama. I'm in the minority of viewers here, most of whom seem to like this half, and the actor who plays Antoine, Louis Jouvet. He is a distinctive character, an unambitious detective who seems irritated to be on the case. He's also given a mixed-race adoptive son to round out his character and provide a nice final scene. But it's the other characters I found interesting. Suzy Delair, Clouzot's lover at the time, is Jenny; Simone Renant is Dora; Bernard Blier (pictured, who looks a bit like Bob Newhart) is Maurice. At various times, all three in the quasi-love triangle are likable or sympathetic, and at other times, less so, especially Jenny who, a day or two after Brignon's death, no longer seems to have a guilty conscience. (I like the scene in which she blithely announces after her number that she has to change her underwear due to "stage fright sweat.") Though set at Christmas, the holiday trappings are not obvious until the end. For all its seriousness in terms of murder and motives, the film has a surprisingly light feel. Recommended. BTW, the title refers to the address of the police station, comparable to a British crime movie being titled SCOTLAND YARD. [TCM]