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Home , Georges Simenon, Jean Gabin

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Maigret And the St. Fiacre Case (1959), various hangers-on await the arrival of Kino Classics, 2017, 106 mins, $23.95 Crosscuts their connection, Cowboy, and a fix of • French superstar takes a BRIEF DVD REVIEWS heroin. At times, they talk directly to the wonderful turn in this second adapta- camera, pulling us into their existences. tion of ’s mystery GRANT TRACEY Added to the ensemble is Jim Dunn series. Gabin’s Inspector Jules Maigret (William Redfield), a documentary film- seeks comforts: food, warm fires to stand maker who exploits the group for his by, a pint of ale, puffs off his pipe. He’s own artistic ends, even agreeing to pay quiet, soft-spoken, observant and yet, for their fixes so that he can keep rolling passionate. This case is personal. Maigret film. He barks out, “be natural, be natu- returns to his countryside hometown to ral,” but he attempts to guide their con- investigate a foreboding letter received versations, creating an overdetermined by an elderly countess, a woman the narrative that he envisions. Knowing young Maigret had a crush on when he nothing about junkie life, he’s eventually was twelve. When she dies, in a church lured into his own fiction, taking his first sanctuary of a heart attack, he suspects hit of H to experience the experience. foul play. Director often The result: he loses focus, his cinéma- films Maigret with outdoor tracking vérité lens no longer zeroing in on the shots, capturing his literal and figura- lives of the people in the room, but on a tive commitment to pursuing the case rolling Hula-Hoop, a cracked window, and uncovering the crime. The finale, a bug climbing the wall. Clarke’s film is involving all the suspects gathered in the actually based on an off-Broadway play, dining room of the countess’s chateau, is written by Jack Gelber, complete with explosive. the original run’s ensemble, including OBIE winner Warren Finnerty, who is The Fortune Cookie (1965), Twilight fantastic as Leach (dig the name, cats, Time, 2017, 126 mins, $29.95 • A TV and its symbolic ramifications: he lives cameraman (Harry Hinkle) feigns a ley Kramer delivers a hard-hitting tale off the misery of others, getting free fixes back injury to collect on an insurance of dedication and unrequited love. Lucas for offering them a place to get theirs). scam. is the nebbish, a Marsh (Robert Mitchum), an arrogant, Finnerty is crude, narcissistic, but also decent guy caught up in the scheming driven medical student, will do anything capable of profound moments of exis- designs of his amoral brother-in-law, to become a doctor, including marrying tential insight. Hard-bop cool oozes out Whiplash Willie (Walther Matthau). a woman [Kristina Hedvigson (Olivia of every frame of this film. A real curio. The ambulance-chasing lawyer is played de Havilland)] he likes but doesn’t love with sarcastic aplomb, as Matthau to acquire her financial backing. After Opera (1987), Scorpion, 2018, 107 mins, draws out many of his utterances with a setting up practice in a small town, $15.39 • Confession: I don’t dig hor- sing-songy obnoxiousness that shows, Lucas eventually comes to grips with his ror films, but I love visual style, so cats hey, it’s his world, he’s driving the main own imperfections. , like Dario Argento grab me with their melody. Hinkle agrees to participate, partially reprising her role from another audacity. Argento’s edits are action- because it appears by doing so he’ll win film about unequal distributions of love, to-action, and his gaillo has constant back his ex-wife, but when he sees the The Heiress (1949), represents the film’s movement: fast-flowing tracking shots, adverse effects his play-acting has on moral center: she’s gentle, kind, and jerky hand-held sequences, and swoop- the football player (Ron Rich as Luther loves Lucas deeply. When Kristina can’t ing subjective point-of-views from, yes, “Boom Boom” Jackson) who “injured” tell Lucas that she’s pregnant, we feel her ravens. The colors pop off the screen. The him, Hinkle has second thoughts. hurt, identify with her, and wonder if plot: a young opera singer Betty (Chris- Matthau and Lemmon are wonderfully Lucas will ever come to really appreciate tian Marscillach) takes over the part of counterpointed in this hard-boiled Billy and love her. Sudsy. Grab the Kleenex. Lady M in Verdi’s Macbeth and suddenly Wilder film and what emerges out of the Compelling. some crazed fan is killing off her friends, entanglements of their innocence and forcing her to watch, needles gating her fraudulence is a sentimental (and I mean The Connection (1961), Milestone, 2015, eyes open, so she can’t even blink. Is a that in a good way) final set piece that 110 mins, $39.95 • Shirley Clarke’s recurring childhood nightmare really a rivals Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca. avant-garde film blurs the boundar- repressed, memory flashback, holding ies between fiction and cinéma-vérité the key to solving the brutal murders? Not as a Stranger (1955), Kino Lorber, documentaries. Set in a grungy NYC Full-throttle thriller from the maestro, 2018, 135 mins, $29.95 • Director Stan- apartment, a jazz quartet, junkies, and dripping with psychological nuances. ☐

46 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW Spring 2018