A Cabeça de um Homem

I am a passionate Maigret enthusiast, and it was a disappointment to see the weak and charmless film that Duvivier made of one of Simenon's better novels. Harry Baur acts as though he couldn't care less about the story or his part, while Gina Manes as the cheap gold-digging mistress of a homicidal wastrel gives a very bland performance. The only spirit in the whole show comes from Valery Inkijinoff as the terminally ill killer Radek, a man who has plenty of reasons to live it up, since he's living on borrowed time. Some fine camerawork from Armand Thirard does not make this film worth seeing.

A thoroughly enjoyable crime drama from Julien Duvivier which had it all for me - the atmosphere of smoky French cafes, a clever plot with its wrinkle in a murder for hire scheme, a fantastic villain (Valéry Inkijinoff), very nice camera work and editing, and the warbling of a plaintive song by Missia, giving Édith Piaf a run for her money. It felt ahead of its time and Hitchcockian (as overused as that comparison is), but at the same time, has that wonderful sense of place in 1930s France. I loved the flirtation and the little references sprinkled into the script, e.g. to the William Desmond Taylor murder, Louis XIV's "little country cottage," and the scrawl on the wall saying "Don't shoot the piano player, he's doing the best he can." I also loved the cat and mouse game with the detective (Harry Baur). One to seek out.

Director Julien Duvivier pulls all the stops in this Georges Simenon crime story with a dazzling display of film language and a pair of two intense performances years ahead of their time in A Man's Head. Accessing all the tools at his disposal Duvivier presents us with one very stylish mystery with some very taut moments.

Gaston Jaquet (Willy Feriere) is a near do well aristocratic poser with a greedy girlfriend (Gena Manes) who has the opportunity to off a rich relative in Versailles. They see it through and then are blackmailed by the killer (Valery Inkijinoff) who frames someone else (Alexandre Rigneault). Enter famed inspector Maigret (Harry Baur) to solve matters.

Whether it his famed close-ups or crowded canvases, Duvivier emphasizes form over content with some bravura editing and tight compositions that not only flesh out a drama but a period as well. His camera constantly on the move, his transitions varied, he gives the film a vitality and pace that never wavers.

As desperate characters Manes and Rigneault are excellent, Inkijinoff incredible in moments while Baur contributes a nice, nonplussed rumpled Maigret.

Prolific Belgian novelist Georges Simenon introduced Inspector Jules Maigret to the world in 1931. Film makers were quick to spot the potential but Simenon was deeply disappointed with the first two adaptations, one of which, 'Nuit au Carrefour' was directed by Jean Renoir with his brother Pierre as Maigret. Simenon was perfectly happy for Renoir to reprise the role in the proposed film of his 'Battle of Nerves' but Simenon himself wanted to direct! Unsurpisingly this idea was knocked on the head. Simenon and Renoir were out and in came Julien Duvivier and Harry Baur who had already made three films together. The title was changed to 'A Man's Head.'

From the opening shot of Madame la Guillotine one is gripped. Duvivier has used this story as a means of conveying his bleak view of the human condition. No adaptation of Maigret, to my knowledge, has succeeded so well in capturing the seediness of demi-monde Montmartre where morally ambiguous characters exist as best they can. This is Film Noir in all but name. The director is aided in this by the art direction of Georges Wakhevitch, for some reason 'uncredited' and his preferred cinematographer at the time Armand Thirard. There is also an inspired use of the voice of chanteuse Damia whose songs are redolent of loss.

Some have criticised the film for making the Maigret of Harry Baur a secondary character to the murderer Radek of Valery Inkijinoff. This is however reminiscent of the relationship between Inspector Porfiry Petrovich and Raskolnikov in 'Crime and Punishment' and is just as effective. As in Dostoevsky's masterpiece all that Maigret has to do is to bide his time and give Radek enough rope. Ironically Bauer was to play Porfiry for Pierre Chenal in 1935.

Inkijinoff excels in the challenging and psychologically complex role of a man under sentence of death from Tuberculosis who has nothing to lose by killing for money and then blackmailing the man who hired him. His one grip on life comes in the shape of his unrequited passion for the Edna of Gina Manes. After a while however his character becomes rather tiresome and one longs for him to be put out of his misery. Mlle Manes, although not a conventional beauty, has sexual charisma in spades and Duvivier has made wonderful use of her eyes, by turns seductive and cunning.

There are two masters at work here. Duvivier, a master of film-making and Bauer, a master of film acting. French cinema has always been more about character than plot and here director and cast are in their element.

Heaven only knows what Simenon thought of the remake 'Man on the Eiffel Tower' but by then he was probably too rich to care. The film lacks a strong hand at the helm and Charles Laughton's idiosyncratic performance as Maigret lacks depth.

Apparently, for reasons best known to himself, Simenon's personal preference in the role was for Rupert Davies!!!!

Pretty good crime/mystery. Didn't much care for Maigret being hijacked 'bout halfway through by Sadek, though. One of the hard and fast rules of movies is that if you've got a famous sleuth (Holmes, Marlowe, Poirot, Miss Marple etc) as the main character then you don't upstage him or her with a subsidiary character even if said sub character is undeniably creepily interesting as Sadek is here, with his Lorry-ish and Doestoevsky-ian intimations. I also agree with one of the previous reviewers who was underwhelmed by Harry Bauer's performance as Maigret. It's so low key that it renders the scene where he finally shows emotion at the death of a colleague, well, kinda ludicrous. However, there is no denying the gritty, tawdry atmosphere with which director Julien Duvivier manages to imbue this film. Hell, you can almost smell the Gauloises in the bar! For this, let's give it a generous B minus.