david-fisher26

Near to the start, the victim's mother describes huge amounts of blood. With only the face being spared a savage attack. But during the trial, the scene-of-crime photos show no sign of any blood at all; just a few neat wounds. This dichotomy is so extreme that this viewer was entirely distracted from watching the remainder of the movie with any interest. What did it mean? Was it some sort of 'high art' concept? Was it the start of some sort of science fictional adventure? Do the French police wash bodies, launder bed-clothes and wash walls before taking a literally sanitized picture? What does it mean?

This series reminds one of Agatha Christie stories in that the investigators wander around talking informally to the suspects and failing to make notes. That somehow works with Christie's amateur and unofficial characters, Marple and Poirot. The problem with this series is that the characters are supposed to be serving police officers but act like amateurs ... horny amateurs. Both the young attractive female detective and the old grizzled and unprepossessing male detective are not slow to have sex with their colleagues, and even with potential suspects. In one episode they even deliberately take drugs and drink to the extent of being helpless; that might be required of an officer working undercover, but these randy clowns do not have that excuse. The general impression is one of sloppiness: a murder-scene is fenced off, but nobody is placed on guard. Critical remains are discovered, and they simply wander off without reporting or protecting them. It is lucky that this all postdates Inspector Clouseau, or Peter Sellers would have been out of a job!