Of course, Franchot Tone's character Johann Radek is a megalomaniac. How else do you explain his hanging around with Inspector Maigret (Charles Laughton) for the length of the film after he kills a wealthy American woman and then attempts to frame a street peddler (Burgess Meredith) for the crime. I didn't need this story to end to realize it wasn't making any sense. Riddle me this - why would Radek give the Inspector a hundred thousand francs? What was the point of that? Why did Huertin (Meredith) have to break a bottle over the head of Maigret's assistant, wasn't that just a bit of overkill?
There was a scene where Radek entertains Maigret with his theory that a brave man would have the courage to commit suicide from a height atop the Eiffel Tower. Well there you have the setup for a melodramatic finale, but when push comes to shove, even that plot element fizzles. And where did Huertin summon up the courage to climb the Tower himself? He couldn't get out of his own way the entire picture and here he's scampering up there behind Radek, but to do what? What do you suppose he would have done if he had caught up with him?
By the reaction of most other reviewers on this board I see I'm not alone. This might have had the seed of a good idea with it's early premise of a large inheritance intriguing enough to hatch a murder plot. But it just gets frittered away with the crime investigation led by Laughton's character. Even he seemed somewhat disappointing considering some of the more flamboyant roles I've seen him in. Maybe if this was a pirate movie.
One interesting thing though. I had to wonder if Rod Serling might have seen this film at some time before coming up with his Twilight Zone story - 'Time Enough at Last'. It too features Burgess Meredith in the lead role as a bank employee who's rendered helpless at the end of the world by an unfortunate accident. There's no way to forget that ending once you've seen it, and you'll recognize it here as soon as it happens.
There was a scene where Radek entertains Maigret with his theory that a brave man would have the courage to commit suicide from a height atop the Eiffel Tower. Well there you have the setup for a melodramatic finale, but when push comes to shove, even that plot element fizzles. And where did Huertin summon up the courage to climb the Tower himself? He couldn't get out of his own way the entire picture and here he's scampering up there behind Radek, but to do what? What do you suppose he would have done if he had caught up with him?
By the reaction of most other reviewers on this board I see I'm not alone. This might have had the seed of a good idea with it's early premise of a large inheritance intriguing enough to hatch a murder plot. But it just gets frittered away with the crime investigation led by Laughton's character. Even he seemed somewhat disappointing considering some of the more flamboyant roles I've seen him in. Maybe if this was a pirate movie.
One interesting thing though. I had to wonder if Rod Serling might have seen this film at some time before coming up with his Twilight Zone story - 'Time Enough at Last'. It too features Burgess Meredith in the lead role as a bank employee who's rendered helpless at the end of the world by an unfortunate accident. There's no way to forget that ending once you've seen it, and you'll recognize it here as soon as it happens.