L’Homme à l’imperméable (1957) - film review

When his wife is called away on a family matter, a timid musician, Albert Constantin, finds himself unable to cope with the simplest domestic chore.  Accepting the advice of a fellow musician he pays a visit on a friendly chorus girl, Eva, just a few moments before she is killed by an unseen assailant.  Realising that Eva is a prostitute, Albert hurries away, hoping to forget about the incident.  The next day, the murder is reported in the newspapers, with eyewitness accounts of a man in a raincoat running from the scene of the crime.  Albert is then approached by a neighbour of the murdered woman, Monsieur Raphaël, who threatens to denounce him to the police unless he pays up.   Raphaël lets slip that he saw another man leave Eva’s rooms after Albert’s visit – presumably this is the real killer.  Within no time at all, Albert finds himself drawn into a deadly web of intrigue, with gun-toting gangsters to fend off as he tries to uncover the identity of Eva’s murderer.

In this liberal adaptation of a James Hadley Chase novel, director Julien Duvivier and screenwriter René Barjavel sought to emulate the style of the American and British comedy thrillers, which were then very popular in France.   The film’s comic element relies almost entirely on its star, the incomparable Fernandel, who is on fine form and brings a certain comic genius to many of the scenes (most notably the sequence in which he attempts to cook a meal, which is on a par with Chaplin and Tati).   The thriller component of the film is less successful, with the violence of certain scenes conflicting with the intentional comedy of others.

It is a mixed bag of a film which really doesn’t quite know whether it wants to be a serious policier or an Ealing-style black comedy.  The way that some of the final scenes are played out is exquisitely close to classic American film noir, to the extent that the comedy which is running in parallel feels inappropriate, if not sacrilege.  Although less impressive than Duvivier’s other thrillers (such as his magnificently cynical Voici le temps des assassins), this is, on balance, an entertaining film, made all the more enjoyable by the spirited performances from Fernandel and his larger-than-life co-star, Bernard Blier.

© James Travers 2003

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