The French Detective

An election campaign is under way. A volunteer for one candidate is beaten to death and a policeman is killed at the scene. Chief inspector Verjeat takes the file. The trail is plain: the man who organised the attack is a local candidate with powerful connections behind him. Verjeat goes to his superiors and hears that they do not want the file closed; but when a name is said the attitude changes. His assistant Lefèvre is young and impatient. The two carry on. As the evidence gathers the pressure grows and Verjeat is removed. Pierre Granier-Deferre directs. Lino Ventura plays Verjeat and Patrick Dewaere plays Lefèvre; Victor Lanoux and Julien Guiomar are in the cast. It is a French production. Julien Guiomar won a César for his part. The source is Raf Vallet's novel. The film sits inside the wave of political crime pictures made in France in the seventies; those productions took the link between institutions as their direct subject. The matter it treats is where an investigation is stopped; there is no shortage of evidence, there is a shortage of will. Lino Ventura's character is not built as a hero; the man is tired and holds no illusion about the system. The pairing of Patrick Dewaere and Ventura is its best side. Its ending grants no victory and the order does not change. Who it is for: viewers who like French crime films and political thrillers. Who it is not for: it is bleak, the pace slow, and the ending cold.