Menace de mort

"Menace de mort" is directed by Raymond Leboursier, an occasional director (only 8 movies) and writer, with no masterpieces in his filmography. This one is a kind of film noir. The major problem is the love story, quite far fetched and played by Colette Darfeuil and Jean Martinelli, completely dull and wooden, in fact, I do not see one scene where they're in love. Maybe it was the director's intention to be so wrongly dark, because the rest of the casting is as we can expect : a boozy Pierre Renoir, the smart concierge Pierre Larquey, and the real interest of this movie, the fallen inspector Dalio who plays delightfully a kinda of nasty Columbo tracking Jean Martinelli. He's really exceptional. Oh, and just enjoy the very last shot, so "unique".

Applying the "revenge is a dish best eaten cold" ,a man wants to take revenge on the villain (Pierre Renoir) who gave him away to the Gestapo in WW2.This memory remains very vague ,the hero hints at it once or twice when he told his pal or the traitor's wife he spent three times in the camps and that's it.The viewer thinks that he mainly wants to get rid of the hubby to pick up the pieces with the wife.Neither this wife nor the hero are really attractive persons .

Fortunately the supporting cast comes to the rescue and walks away with the honors:Pierre Renoir's part is too small to allow him to show his great talent but Dalio and Pierre Larquey shine.

Dalio is a dismissed cop who wants to come back to work and he is as marvelously nasty and vile as ever .Larquey is even better as the concierge who thinks that "your wine has a funny taste" .Also notable are two supporting actresses,Jeanne Fusier-Gir as a fortune-teller and Pauline Carton as an old maid looking for a man to go out with.