L'homme de la tour Eiffel

There were various production problems on this picture , including Charles Laughton's menacing to walk off the picture , as he asked leaving if the original director , Irving Allen , threatening to be replaced and Burguess Meredith then carried on the filming . The film happens in Paris , there a dandy named Bill Kirby (Robert Hutton : Invisible invader , Slime people , Vulture) wishes death his aunt , so he can get her inheritance and pay off divorce his spouse (Patricia Roc : Wicked lady , Canyon passage) and marry his lover (Jean Wallace , Cornel Wilde's wife) . A medicine ex-student named Radek (Franchot Tone , also film's producer) is hired to kill the old lady . By night , a knifes grinder , now become thief , named Heurtin (star Burgess Meredith eventually filmmaker) aware the murder but he loses his glasses and he's helped by the assassin . He's framed of killing and then escapes . Meanwhile , Radek is taunting the police and leaving fake clues and banter on Kirby's two women : the wife and lover . Inspector Maigret becomes involved into investigation and swiftly discovers the owner of the thick glasses , though there is no real evidence against him . Then , Inspector Maigret undergoes a cat and mouse game with Radek . It's a battle of wits , an obstinate detective and an intelligent villain , and winds up pitting two rivals against each other in order to destroy themselves . Meanwhile , there are developed pursuits through Paris streets , squares and on rooftops and an exciting chase on the girders of Eiffel Tower.

The film is based on Georges Simenon novel about the famous detective Inspector Maigret who is adapted on various cinematic renditions . The movie displays suspense , thriller , action , mystery and results to be quite amusing . Casting is frankly magnificent , Laughton is excellent , as always , as Maigret who is early assigned to the case and quickly tracks down the suspicious ; Tone as a maniac-depressive man is top-notch and magnificent Burguess Meredith as a knife grinder becomes involved with problems , he directed partially the film when Laughton threatened to quit if Burgess Meredith did not take over . Besides , appearing Wilfrid Hyde White as a sympathetic professor and Howard Vernon (Jesus Franco's usual actor) as an Inspector . Numerous problems during shooting , as producer Irving Allen was the original director, but after only three days of shooting , Laughton directed the scenes in which Meredith appeared .

Adapted from Georges Simenon's 1931 novel "La Tête d'un homme", his fifth to feature Inspector Maigret . It had already been filmed in France, under its original title, in 1933 . In spite of being splendidly shown streets , squares , monuments from Paris : River Sena , Eliseos Fields , Pigalle , Concorde Square and photographed by expert cameraman Stanley Cortez (Night of hunter , Magnificent Amberson , Secret beyond the door), the cinematography is lousy and faded but the film copy is worn-out , it's necessary an urgent remastering . The motion picture was rightly directed by Burguess Meredith , who replaced director Irving Allen (who was also one of the film's producer) . Allen himself was very dissatisfied with the final results . After its initial run , he bought the film rights back from RKO and kept the prints out of circulation for a long time. Many believed that the film was lost, even Meredith . However, it has been released on VHS and DVD and can be relatively easily found at rental stores . Burguess , subsequently , directed other film titled the ¨Yin and Yang of Mr. Go¨ , as well . The flick will appeal to Charles Laughton fans and intrigue lovers but contains a highly suspense story .

Alarmingly shot in a process called Ansco Color (now decayed into a jaundiced sepia), The Man on the Eiffel Tower marks the first of two movies directed by Burgess Meredith. Unlike his co-star Charles Laughton, however, whose sole directorial effort Night of the Hunter showed style and assurance, Meredith lacks the rudimentary skills that would turn an actor into an auteur. Faced with a complex plot drawn from a Georges Simenon story, he failed to construct a coherent narrative skeleton; when different plot elements happen to mesh together they do so abruptly, jarringly. Instead, Meredith relies on a jumble of amateurish but flashy effects that illuminate nothing but themselves. It's a pretentious mess of a movie that should have been fun.

A rich American (Robert Hutton), torn between wife and mistress, hatches a scheme to kill off his wealthy aunt. He engages sociopath Franchot Tone to do the job, who in the process frames itinerant knife-sharpener Meredith for the murder. Hunting down the killer is Laughton as Inspector Maigret, taunted every step of the way by Tone.

The three veterans from ‘30s Hollywood had all seen better days (only Laughton would see them again). Tone looks seriously unwell (perhaps a touch of Ansco) and acts it. With a crop of carroty hair in need of harvesting, Meredith dithers around as if preoccupied with figuring out the next day's shooting schedule. And while Laughton delves deep into his larder of ham, he never fleshes out a memorable character for Maigret.

That leaves, as in Charpentier's opera Louise, the last character: The City of Paris (for so it's listed, ominously, in the credits). Like sightseers on a tour bus, we're trundled from Les Deux Magots to Place Pigalle to the erector-set edifice of the title itself. The movie's many and baffling chases – along the banks of the Seine, across rooftops, through mansions with no shortage of doors – lead nowhere but offer the glossy pleasures of a French travelogue. But the final scenes, filmed high in the dizzying geometry the Eiffel Tower, finally display some bravura. Pity they come too late, and after too much ill-directed footage, to matter.

The exciting finale is by far the best part of this movie, which is an adaptation of one of Georges Simenon's crime stories featuring Inspector Maigret. Most of the movie is rather uneven, although it does have some interesting moments. Except for Maigret, who is played by Charles Laughton, most of the characters never really come to life, which keeps the story from being as involving as it could have been.

The Parisian cinematography helps sustain it through some of its murkier stretches, and it is likely that it might have been more impressive visually in its original state. Most or all of the prints on home video or television airings now have most of the color washed out of them, giving it a drab appearance that probably does not do justice to the original camera work.

The story has some interesting features in itself, with a murder plot involving several persons in one capacity or other, and Maigret engaged in a battle of wits with the killer, leading up to the finale on the Eiffel Tower. This lengthy sequence features some well-chosen views, and at times they create a dizzying feeling of suspense. Director Burgess Meredith's technique is unexceptional in the rest of the movie, but in this sequence it works quite well, and of course it had to overcome the technical challenges involved without the aid of computer imagery.

Most of the movie is really of interest only for some scenery, the curiosity value, and perhaps for the cast, but the exciting finale makes up for a lot of its weaknesses. If nothing else, the finale is worth watching for its own sake.

It did not surprise me to discover after watching this film that three different persons directed it. There is no consistent vision to the film, and the narrative is poorly handled: the plot is complicated, with multiple story threads that are not coherently executed. Shot in Anscocolor, an experimental colour processing technique, the film has a strange, washed out look to it, which could be the result of film stock degrading, as everything seems to have a yellow tinge. In general, the film is quite a drag - not particularly well made, nor easy to follow - however it has a significant amount of minor virtues.

The acting in the film is quite adequate, with Charles Laughton doing the best to make his detective character charismatic: he twitches his nose, smokes a pipe, and talks in an almost monotone voice when he is dealing with a suspect. Franchot Tone comes off the best though, giving a real sense of life to his character, a mastermind criminal who is obsessed with the idea that he cannot be caught, and often raves about it to Laughton. Even Burgess Meredith has some interesting moments as an insecure, introverted man caught up in the mess somewhere.

The music, cinematography and art direction are all adequately good too. The music fits to the appropriate mood of each scene, the camera-work is interesting now and again, either following the characters around or tilting up to look at the different bits of scenery, and the scenery, the locations all fit the tale reasonably well. Set in Paris, yet with Americans involved, there is a sense that this is a foreign environment where no one really knows the rules.

It is not a completely virtue-less movie, but it is still a mess overall. There are a number of jump cuts, although with four threads of story poorly woven together, a continuity error here and there does not disrupt too much. The dialogue is rather lame and often only says the obvious, plus the style of the film is melodramatic, and it often seems overdone. A humorous touch or two, Tone's performance and okay music are pretty much all that makes it bearable.

I found this film a real mixed bag. Firstly there is the jaunting use of colour. It has been well documented that the negative is long lost and only two 35mm film prints of varying quality are known to have survived (the DVD is made from the best elements combined from both these prints). The film print is still quite scratched and dark in places and could probably do with a proper digital restoration but at least it is watchable, if not as easy on the eye as technicolor is.

I'm not going to go into plot details as others have already done that but I did find the film starts off quite well before the plot starts to sag quite badly in the middle and gets overly complicated, although it does pick up again towards the end when Maigret's plan starts to come together leading to the action packed finale. Also, despite receiving a major credit, Wilfrid Hyde White is in the film for one scene only so its more of a cameo than anything else.

I found the dialogue to be hugely artificial at times making it sound like bad acting rather than decent actors trying to say some rather wooden lines. Yet Maigret himself is quite wonderfully acted by Charles Laughton who plays the role just right. Whereas some of the other characters seem very contrived, Maigret has a wonderful sense of humanity and believability as a middle aged, rather rotund detective who is actually smarter than he lets on. In fact Laughton's interpretation is not a million miles away from Michael Gambon's portrayal for television 40 years later. His sense of calm and intelligence, patiently waiting for his arrogant suspect to make a mistake, is reminiscent of Peter Ustinov's unruffled Hercule Poirot.

A final word should go to the production values. Shot on the streets of Paris this film is an interesting view of how post war Paris looked, showing both the beauty of the city and the damage from the war that had finished 4 years earlier. Burgess Meredith was asked to take over directing the film three days into filming and to be fair he does a decent job, keeping the camera moving when it needs to and ensuring the audience know this is not filmed on a backlot in Hollywood. The sound is also beautifully clear too, a hard job when you consider the amount of location work involved.

All in all this film falls short of being a genuine classic due to a muddled and flabby script, bad dialogue (in places) and some overacting by some of the supporting cast. However its still has a lot going for it and is well worth a watch for Laughtons performance alone.