Le chat et la souris

Police Commissioner Serge Reggiani is called in on a most peculiar case: Jean-Pierre Aumont, one of the richest men in France, has killed himself at home. At the same time, thieves have stolen very valuable paintings from his house. Aumont's widow, Michèle Morgan, is the natural suspect, but she was seeing a movie at the time, and no matter how he and his assistant, Philippe Léotard, try, they can't make the timelines match.

We follow Reggiani for two years, his taking bribes, his training his dog to attack on command, his relationship with his daughter, whom he marries off to Leotard, his forced retirement to a farm, where he works on a book about the case. At the same time, he develops feelings for Mlle. Morgan, and because he is no longer a cop, he just wants to solve the case, with no sense he has to bring her to justice.

Eventually he does figure out what happened, but that's just ubiquitous background to this movie by Claude Lelouch. Once again, the director has taken a leisurely view of his story, with all the details of life, few of which connect save through Reggiani, filling in the characters in great detail, like some detailed mosaic that leads to a life. It lacks the sense of inevitability, of fate, that some of his better known movies thrive on, but it's certain very watchable.

The commissioner Lechat and his colleague Pierre Chemin are in charge of the investigation of the death of Mr. Richard. At the first sight it looks like a fake suicide. Besides some important paintings have disappeared. Immediately Mrs. Richard become the main suspect. Is her alibi true ? So we have the scene in which Lachat and Chemin are timing the transfer from Paris to the villa in the countryside and also the return from the villa to Paris.

But this film is also a comedy ; the story of the relationship between Lechat and Mrs. Richard, the commissioner says Mrs. Richard that he is sure that she killed her husband, but at the same time he doesn't want to send her to jail. Some characters are framing Mrs Richard,we don't understand why, but little by little Lechat and Chemin understand for example the kidnapping of Mrs. Richard.

I enjoyed this film , especially the performances of Serge Reggiani, Philippe Léotard and Michèle Morgan: but Jean-Pierre Aumont, Valérie Lagrange, Michel Pereylon, Christine Laurent , Philippe Labro Arlette Emmery, Erik Colin and Yves Alonso made good performances.

This is a really sweet, charming comedy! Delightful!

(Yes, it is a parody; it's a comedy.)

This is the most ridiculous movie I ever saw. It supposed to be a detective story but not a single episode in it can stand a simple scrutiny. The events are so implausible that the movie often looks like a parody. There are many French detective stories with a script that has more holes than a fisherman's net. However, this one is the worst.

A rich bourgeois has died:is it suicide or murder?As he cheated on his wife ,and was about to divorce from her,the lady (Michèle Morgan) is the main suspect.

Claude Lelouch,who is ,at least to my eyes, a minor French director ,is at his best when he tries his hand at light thrillers or comedies ."Le Chat et la Souris" recalls "le Voyou" ,with its construction which looks like a puzzle ,its screenplay "à Tiroirs" and even the movie in the movie trick .Lelouch really plays cat and mouse with the audience as Detective Lechat (sic)(Regggiani) does with his still attractive suspect (or is it the other way about?).

There are plenty of funny scenes and some witty lines ("you see this distinguished lady riding a motorbike?");and the nail in the Rum Baba in the chic restaurant is a good idea to provide the detective with the final clue (so to speak,for "nail" is "clou" in French).

Objections: there are not enough scenes where Reggiani and Morgan are together ,and the scenes of the detective's private life (and his assistant's ,played by Philippe Leotard)get in the way.

This film accounts for the difference between Lelouch's world and ,say ,Chabrol's. The latter ,in his best works ,ferociously attacks the bourgeoisie.Lelouch,on the other hand ,makes sure the bourgeois moral is intact.Thou shalt not covet other people's possession.