Popular reviews

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  Review by Slig001 ★★★★ 1

  This is a neat little detective yarn from Henri-Georges Clouzot. It gets off to a great start - a man is impaled in a slick sequence from the killer's point of view. From there we move into the main plot, which features a detective going undercover in a boarding house where he suspects a serial killer is residing. The film is heavy in the comedy department and it has a real dry sense of humour. It works well the main plot. There's a boatload of well defined characters; meaning there's plenty of red herrings as the mystery starts to unfold. It all breezes past at a very fast pace - nothing is dwelt on too long before the plot is…

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  Review by Pierre Lachaine ★★★★½ 1

  Un film tout simplement délicieux de la première à la dernière seconde. Une mise en scène brillante de Clouzot, un récit passionnant et ludique, des acteurs parfaits qui s'amusent comme des fous (Suzie Delair!!), des personnages savoureux, des répliques jouissives, des séquences inoubliables (Pierre Fresnay qui se tortille pour ne pas se faire péter les points noirs par Suzie Delair : "Un dernier! Ah, lui, c'est un champion, le roi des rois!"). Bref, que peut-on vouloir de plus?

  "Vous devriez vous couvrir, vous allez attraper un rhume de cerveau.
  - Par les cuisses?
  - Ah, tout dépend où vous placez votre cervelle."

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  Review by Karelle ★★★★½ 7

  'Stie que c'est délicieux comme film! J'voulais pas finir ma journée sur le souvenir de Don't Torture a Duckling, pis vraiment, c'était parfait de passer la soirée avec mon ami Clouzot. (Et puis, allo Suzy Delair, je t'aime.)

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  Review by Karelle ★★★★½

  Fallait bien honorer la délicieuse Suzy Delair qui nous a quitté hier à 102 ans!

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  Review by MeMyNonsense ★★★★

  Clouzot’s directorial debut is yet another testament to his “French Hitchcock” moniker. While Chabrol & DePalma consistently (and quite successfully) showcased their strong golden-hollywood Hitchcockian influences, HGC delivers the ultimate pre-hollywood Hitchcock homage. The Murderer Lives At Number 21 is super reverent to some of his best British comic-thrillers…almost to a fault.

  The plot follows Inspector Wens (Pierre Fresnay) who’s forced to check into a seemingly inconspicuous boarding house to nab the mysterious and theatrical serial killer who goes by the name of ‘Monsieur Durand’ and always leaves a calling card. His investigation is however beset by bumbling, intrusive superiors and his ditzy, fame-crazy girlfriend (Suzy Delair).

  The undercover Wens is presented with a sundry of dubious suspects whose constant inter-squabbling provides the…

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  Review by Owen ★★★★

  Clouzot's collaborationist take on a comedy-thriller has some excellent visuals, an involving mystery and strong chemistry from Fresney and DeLair as Inspector Wens and his mistress/foil. Fresney is a charismatic and intelligent lead and DeLair is both sexy and funny throughout, Cluzout's camera likes both of them a great deal and there's a nice tone throughout, quite bawdy but with an undercurrent of steel.

  The range of suspects are all well delineated and while it doesn't in any way mention the war there is a strange paranoid feel of the police working under arbitary deadlines and demands that add to the strange tone of the piece.

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  Review by Karelle ★★★★ 2

  Maudit que j'aime ça les whodunnit! Je passe toujours des moments légers et agréables quand j'en vois, ça me fait du bien et me remplit d'enthousiasme, surtout lorsque, comme dans le cas présent, les deux personnages principaux sont tout simplement délicieux et terriblement attachants (Mila était adorable et très drôle, t'sais dans une annoying-kind-of-way).

  (Pis aussi, merci spécial à Sam qui a rendu mon visionnement possible!)

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  Review by Joe ★★★★

  A French whodunit directed with style and flair by Henri-Georges Clouzot - check out the first murder sequence, an extended POV stalking shot that predates Carpenter or De Palma by decades - funny and light despite the Nazi occupation that hangs over every scene. Goebbels forbade the kind of bleak, despairing thrillers that Clouzot would later specialize in, but even he couldn't stop the director from subtly orchestrating a Nazi salute by the defeated killer at the end.

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  Review by Adriana Scarpin ★★★★½

  Ceis não sabem o quanto AMO esses filmes franceses da ocupação dando martelada na cabeça dos nazis, a cena do jantar com o Fresnay recitando um trecho bem específico da bíblia me fez gozar num tanto que às vezes me sinto culpada por achar os melhores períodos dos cinemas mundiais os que estão sob repressão, primeiro porque os repressores são muito burros pois deixam passar uma óbvia crítica a eles, segundo porque é uma luz na escuridão pra quem tá assistindo.
  P.S. O Carlos Hugo Christensen fez um remake desse filme quando ainda morava na Argentina.
  Box Obras-Primas do Cinema Henri-Georges Clouzot.

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  Review by emma ★★★½

  “my name is bailey sarian, and welcome to murder mystery & makeup monday’s!” - me to me watching fictional murder mysteries.

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  Review by kmarus ★★★★½ 2

  Just delightful. The Thin Man as directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. It has the same wit and sophisticated interplay of the Nick and Nora movies, but with a more sordid story befitting its wartime Parisian setting and a decidedly more French sensibility surrounding sex. Suzy Delair--still alive and kicking at 101 years old--reminded me a little of my favorite screwball, Irene Dunne.

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  Review by PUNQ ★★★½

  Playful murder mystery from Henri-Georges Clouzot. Not too unlike those from Hollywood with a detective and a dizzy dame trying to solve a interesting case being thrown off-course a bunch of times before stumbling upon the solution. This one full of comic excellence in between creative murders. Such fun!