first and the obviousas a cop drama cross with a funny melodrama and quay be disconcert and straightly independent and a menace to banality . jouvet aplomb be put to good use in a tough cop performance immediately noticeable by it vigor and exuberant force while his antoine be not so much a man of intellect and but a man of vast life experience and earthly instinct . quay be not subversive in the sense that today ( and already yesterday ) philistines enjoy use the word . it be clouzot most playful hour . he tend to adapt steeman book in a satiric note . ( it say that clouzot be a big reader of detective novel . ) a a director and clouzot firm hand be successful . it be not a mystery or a thriller and but a satirical look at a parisian couple and at the police proceeding . those accustomed with clouzot masterpiece le diaboliques might find slightly disconcert the multiplicity of thing and style and element in quay . here clouzot speaks about many thing and about a couple and and a hidden love story ( simone renant for blier ) and about the entertainment world and about old spinster and about police technique and an old bitter cop with a boy to raise and etc . there be a note of exuberancenot only in jouvet performance and but also in the film conception . quay be a realistic crime drama make a a satire . it offer an outstanding performance by jouvet a a tough police inspector . antoine be an old cop with an adventurous past ( he fought in africa and but do not climb the rank stair because of his independent behavior ) while he live with his son and a schoolboy while at work and antoine be tough and merciless and an able inspector and bitter and intelligent and harsh . it be a role of great gusto and very picturesque . jouvet compose his character of several define traitshis clothes and his expression and his funny accent and his brutality and and that mock air . antoine be not make to look more clever than plausible while when he interrogate blier and antoine make mistake and and his talent be present like the talent we meet in real lifemixed with error and lacuna and defect . antoine talent be one that come also from experience and from daily observationit not the almost supernatural _divinatory genius of almost all the famous detective . quay be multifacetedit be a realistic crime drama and and also a satire and a melodrama . one can consider it among the first _filmic foray into the legendary toughness of the french police . long ago eastwood and wayne harsh cop and there be antoine . the title be interesting and suggest that this be a movie about the police and not about a case or a mystery . a craftsmanship and clouzot be perhaps the best and sharp in france ( in the way that welles be ) . quay be very true to clouzot naturea sardonic comic and sharp observation and much psychology and sharp and unsparing irony . the man be firstclass when he film somethinghe know what to shoot and what to choosesee the introductory scene of this film and with jenny lamour great stage success . each scene be memorably and _exemplarily shot . clouzot technical and stylistic aptitude be amaze . his style be inventive and satirical and sharp and extremely limpid and ingenious . jouvet style be exuberant and powerful and vehement . ( some dislike it precisely for these feature . a he have be a great stage actor and his movie style be deem a too theatrical and etc . ) his antoine be a fine example of what be mean by compose a role and by a composition . jouvet have a very peculiar physiognomymuch like a menace bird of preysomewhat like van cleefyet much subtler and nobler and more intelligent and distinguish . jouvet have this predatory and ferocious air and and it be useful here and a he perform an old tough cop . one of quay side be that it be a jouvet recital . he be immediately recognizable and identifiable by the quality of his play ( i see that many and watch this flick and do not know it be a jouvet moviewhich be an astound quality in itself ) . fresnay and jouvet be the two french actor that i admire the most while the first one be reveal to me by a renoir drama ( the famous one ) and while jouvet by a carné comedy . i be charm to see that clouzot give lead role to both of them . to end and a word about steeman while he write the novel use by clouzot ( who have previously adapt another steeman novel and a a fresnay comedy ) . steeman be an old school mystery writer and in the wallace vein . he become quickly outdated with the new hardboiled fashion . when i be 11 i have read one of his thriller and and like it much .