La tête d’un homme

LA TÊTE D’UN HOMME was Duvivier's third adaptation of a novel by Georges Simenon. Originally, the writer had wanted to direct the film himself but he got involved with dubious producers who operated with bad checks, so the project fell through. When Duvivier took over, he discarded Simenon's script and started from scratch: Maigret (Harry Baur) is on the trail of Radek (Valéry Inkijinoff), a terminally-ill and intellectual murderer who transforms his robbery and murder into an artful game involving false suspects and the police. It is a crime film that is less interested in solving the case than in reveling in the Dostoevskian atmosphere as if drunk. (re/fl)