Sergil chez les filles

This is pretty discouraging stuff;only people interested in Paul Meurisse 's Pre-"Diaboliques career might be interested .

"Chez Therese" is a house used by lovers as a discreet meeting-place ,not to say a brothel ("it's a respectable home" say the housewife and her husband full of bonhomie).Hence the title (=Sergil visits the gals).Paul Meurisse is cast as detective Sergil ,whose investigations are so muddled the viewer feels like giving up before the disappointing solution.

It is as if the director,five minutes before the ending,suddenly appreciated how dour it all was and desperately attempted to enliven his flick by last-minute devices ,such as the sequence around the funicular railway -which they do not ride anyway-and the culprit graping the gates ,a la "Pepe Le Moko" .But it's all too little too late.