Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Byrdz This from the trivia page of "The Man on the Eiffel Tower". Irwin Allen (the original director) was very dissatisfied with the final results. After its initial run, he bought the film rights back from RKO and kept the prints out of circulation for a long time. Many believed that the film was lost, even Meredith. However, it has been released on VHS and DVD and can be relatively easily found at rental stores.Too bad it was found. It would have been better as a "lost masterpiece". The copy that I watched was so badly faded that it was totally shades of orange. Distracting but not the worst flaws in the film. Maigret is not my favorite detective but Laughton as Maigret ? Really ? He's supposed to be FRENCH !Meredith needs to tie his glasses on somehow. He is always losing them. He also needs to stay away from directing. Not his best skill. Then there is the plot, perhaps clearer in the book, I dunno, but here ? So mixed up that it's impossible to find, much less follow. (Spoilers on ? Yes. OK) How does one "trace" a poor man's glasses to him ? WHY chase a man up the Eiffel Tower by way of girders and elevator. Stand at the base and wait for him to come down. CRIPES !

trevorwomble I found this film a real mixed bag. Firstly there is the jaunting use of colour. It has been well documented that the negative is long lost and only two 35mm film prints of varying quality are known to have survived (the DVD is made from the best elements combined from both these prints). The film print is still quite scratched and dark in places and could probably do with a proper digital restoration but at least it is watchable, if not as easy on the eye as technicolor is.I'm not going to go into plot details as others have already done that but I did find the film starts off quite well before the plot starts to sag quite badly in the middle and gets overly complicated, although it does pick up again towards the end when Maigret's plan starts to come together leading to the action packed finale. Also, despite receiving a major credit, Wilfrid Hyde White is in the film for one scene only so its more of a cameo than anything else.I found the dialogue to be hugely artificial at times making it sound like bad acting rather than decent actors trying to say some rather wooden lines. Yet Maigret himself is quite wonderfully acted by Charles Laughton who plays the role just right. Whereas some of the other characters seem very contrived, Maigret has a wonderful sense of humanity and believability as a middle aged, rather rotund detective who is actually smarter than he lets on. In fact Laughton's interpretation is not a million miles away from Michael Gambon's portrayal for television 40 years later. His sense of calm and intelligence, patiently waiting for his arrogant suspect to make a mistake, is reminiscent of Peter Ustinov's unruffled Hercule Poirot.A final word should go to the production values. Shot on the streets of Paris this film is an interesting view of how post war Paris looked, showing both the beauty of the city and the damage from the war that had finished 4 years earlier. Burgess Meredith was asked to take over directing the film three days into filming and to be fair he does a decent job, keeping the camera moving when it needs to and ensuring the audience know this is not filmed on a backlot in Hollywood. The sound is also beautifully clear too, a hard job when you consider the amount of location work involved.All in all this film falls short of being a genuine classic due to a muddled and flabby script, bad dialogue (in places) and some overacting by some of the supporting cast. However its still has a lot going for it and is well worth a watch for Laughtons performance alone.

writers_reign You'll go a long way to find a movie as ill-conceived and then ineptly shot as this remake of Le Tete d'un homme. In a case of let me count the ways you could start with the miscasting of Robert Hutton and Patricia Roc both of whom made their name playing respectively 'nice' guys and ingenues and here seen as manipulative husband and wife with Hutton sporting a ludicrous moustache and Roc as his American wife making no attempt at the accent. As Inspector Maigret Charles Laughton makes a great Inspector Clouseau without the laughs and ... but you get the picture. Hutton anticipates Farley Granger in Strangers On A Train by wishing his wife dead leaving him free to marry Jean Wallace though God knows why he would want to, while Franchot Tone, in the Robert Walker role, overhears and offers to do the deed for ready cash. Rounding off the bizarre casting is Burgess Meredith as the milquetoast knife-grinder framed for the murder. Three directors had a hand in this farrago; producer Irving Allen, quickly deep-sixed by Laughton who substituted first-timer Meredith and shot Meredith's scenes himself. The Ansco color shooting doesn't do it any favors and the DVD I have looks like a tenth generation print. It was actually shot on location in Paris but thanks to the print it may as well have been Upper Sandusky. One to give plenty or room.

captainzip I wonder what this film would have been like had Burgess Meredith not taken over directing from Irving Allen. I showed my Super 8 print of it to a packed house of two recently - to rediscover that it is a gripping detective mystery moving at a rapid and entertaining pace.While not flawless (dialogue is delivered in a very perfunctory and unimaginative way occasionally), it is well worth a peek with some great Paris location work, some initial intrigue over who had actually committed murder, and a battle of nerves between Inspector Maigret and the manic-depressive Johann Radek character.The scene where the Tzigane band intrude on the café conversation just too much is fun.But, if for no other reason, it should be seen for its gripping, death-defying climactic suicidal climb on the Eiffel Tower and Burgess Meredith's fall onto the power cables.I'd love to see the restored Ansco-color version which showed at the National Film Theatre a year or two ago.