Maigret à Pigalle (1967)
Directed by Mario Landi

Film Review

Gino Cervi proved to be such a hit in the Italian television series Le Inchieste del commissario Maigret that he could hardly have escaped playing Georges Simenon's famous pipe-smoking detective on the big screen, joining an illustrious roll call of actors to have inhabited the part that includes Pierre Renoir, Albert Préjean, Jean Gabin, Charles Laughton and Michel Simon.  Maigret à Pigalle was made when Cervi was halfway through his eight-year TV stint as Maigret, so he was comfortable in the role and carries the part with charm and authority.  Cervi is better known for his comedic roles, most famously in the Don Camillo series of films in which he played the communist mayor Peppone opposite Fernandel's unconventional Catholic priest, but he was also a very capable dramatic actor, as this film demonstrates.

Maigret à Pigalle was directed by the same man who directed every one of Cervi's television outings as Maigret, namely Mario Landi, who would later become associated with the giallo style of Italian thriller, through such films as Giallo a Venezia (1978).  For the most part, Maigret à Pigalle resembles a fairly conventional French crime movie of the mid-1960s, but it has some interesting giallo touches - a murder of a sensual female that veers towards the theatrical, liberal use of long tracking shots, and, most teasingly, endless close-ups of black gloved hands suggesting murderous intent with more than a hint of the perverse.  It's mild stuff compared with what giallo directors would get up to in the 1970s but Landi's film offers an interesting fusion of styles - French film noir and its kinkier Italian near cousin.

Film Synopsis

Shortly after a striptease artist named Arlette forewarns the police that an elderly countess is about to be murdered she is found dead in her apartment, strangled.  That same day, the police discover that the countess in question has indeed been murdered, and, as he begins his investigation, Police Commissioner Maigret is convinced the two killings are in some way connected.  One possible suspect is Fred Afonsi, a former criminal who now runs the popular Pigalle nighclub where Arlette worked...