Summary
Inspector Wens is on the trail of a serial killer who has committed four street killings
in the space of a few months. The only clue is a visitor’s card signed "Monsieur
Durand" found at the scene of each murder. Wens receives an unexpected tip-off that
the murderer is living in a boarding house. Disguised as a cleric, he takes a room
in the boarding house and finds that lodgers to be a very strange bunch indeed.
One of them must be the murderer...
Review
Clouzot’s first full length film is a mild contrast with the dark, suspense-laden thrillers
for which the director is best known (Les Diaboliques, Le Salaire de la peur
), but it is an excellent example of the early polar genre of the 1940s.
L'Assassin habite au 21 is a comedy thriller whodunnit which, although lighter
than Clouzot’s later films, still manages to contain some disturbing moments. The
great director’s technique is surprisingly mature and effective in this early film, the
film’s opening five minutes or so being particularly gripping and shocking.
The film shows is American film noir influence throughout, particularly in the atmospheric
lighting and photography. Pierre Fresnay reprises the part of the charismatic Inspector
Wens from his earlier film, Le
Dernier des six (1941), which Clouzot also scripted. Suzy Delair also makes
a welcome return as Wens' bubbly girlfriend, Mila Milou.
War-time censorship (from the Nazis and the paying public) was probably a major factor
in determining the mood of the film. This could equally as well have been made as
a very dark psychological thriller (in the vein that Clouzot adopted, to his peril, for
his next film, Le Corbeau) Instead, a lighter approach was chosen, although
curiously the humour in this film often seems to heighten rather than relieve the tension.
Some of the characters who initially appear quite comic emerge as rather sinister individuals.
Whether this contributed to the film’s success is anyone’s guess, but the film was certainly
popular when it first shown and it established Clouzot's credentials as a film director.
© James Travers 2001
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