Harry Baur was the third French actor to play Maigret in as many years and as many films so clearly the character had caught the imagination of the public. Julien Duvivier had been directing films since 1919 and had twenty eight titles behind him, including the brilliant Poil de carrotte, when he tackled his first Simenon and his experience is evident in every frame. He thinks nothing of switching from a Master Shot in, say, a crowded bar, to a Close shot of an individual and intersperses these with Cutaways, a note lying adjacent to a foot, etc. He even shoots one striking scene from a moving car in which we see only the view from a passenger window and allows the unseen occupants to talk over the whole thing. Today, of course, we think nothing of this and possibly even consider it old hat but in 1933 this was high style and it was obvious that a real Master was at work despite the lightness of the plot. If you put your mind to it you could even speculate that Patricia Highsmith got the idea for Strangers On A Train from this movie in which a man mentions in a crowded bar that it would be very convenient if his wealthy aunt were to die and leave him sufficient money to clear his debts and one of the customers takes him at his word and actually does the evil deed. For the time the plot was serviceable but the main interest is how well Duvivier tells his story, handles his actors, and pursues unusual - for the time - camera angles culminating in a climax that finds the murderer trapped beneath the wheel of an automobile, a hand sticking out from (literally) beneath the weight of the wheel and the head at a grotesque angle. Perhaps not quite so good as La Belle Equipe and definitely inferior to Un Carnet de bal and La Fin du jour this is, nevertheless, a fine Duvivier film and a definite 8 out of 10.
Review of A Man's Head
