L'homme à l'imperméable

One wonders what James Hadley Chase thought of this adaptation of 'Tiger by the Tail' directed by Julien Duvivier. The respectable banker in the book has here become a lovable, bumbling clarinettist in what is essentially a star vehicle for the marvellous Fernandel but even he cannot keep this afloat. John McGiver in this his first film steals his scenes as a dodgy art dealer and Bernard Blier has a thankless part as a nosey neighbour who discovers that curiosity kills the cat. This is a film that cannot make up its mind whether to be a comedy thriller or film noir and succeeds as neither. One of Duvivier's duds.

I've seen about six or seven Julien Duvivier films so far, and "The Man In The Raincoat" is easily the weakest of them; not that it's bad, mind you, but it moves along sluggishly (I had to watch it in two parts), goes on too long, and by the end turns into a muddled corpse fest. Fernandel has some funny moments, but not enough for 107 minutes of duration. **1/2 out of 4.

Coming after his awesome film noir "voici le temps des assassins" the same year,everything Duvivier would produce afterward was bound to be a let -down :such was the case for "l'homme à l'imperméable" which fluctuates between comedy and drama .

Comedy because of Fernandel's personality:it's hard to take his character seriously (a character he had often played in the past:the less-than-handsome guy who falls for a gorgeous woman).

Drama because it's a Hadley Chase novel ;and Fernandel ,who is an ideal Pagnol actor,is definitely not a film noir hero.

It's pussyfooting all the way.While it's entertaining,it cannot be looked upon as an achievement for the highly talented Duvivier.