Cécile est morte (1944) - film review

Convinced that her life is in danger, Cécile appeals to the police to help her.  She insists that a mysterious stranger has already made a number of nocturnal intrusions into the apartment where she lives with her bullying aunt.  But no one, not even the great Inspector Maigret, takes her claims seriously – until she is murdered...

In this, the second of the three Maigret films made by the German-run Continental Films during the Occupation, popular film star Albert Préjean reprises his role as the famed pipe-smoking detective, accompanied by his improbable side-kick Lucas.  Although, again, the film fails to capture the atmosphere of the Georges Simenon novel on which it is based, it does offer a reasonably satisfactory alternative – a suspenseful and witty black comedy.

The film was directed by Maurice Tourneur, whose stylised approach – ironically – seems to owe something to German expressionism.  It is certainly a very different work to the two other Maigret films made by Continental, under the direction of Richard Pottier.  Sadly, the one thing that the three films have in common is that Albert Préjean looks painfully ill at ease in his role as Maigret.

© James Travers 2003

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