Quai des Orfèvres (1947)

Quai des Orfèvres is a 1947 movie directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, best known for The Wages of Fear and Diabolique.

Henri-Georges Clouzot doesn’t really fit neatly into a particular genre. There is a bit of a film noir vibe. Surprisingly perhaps it doesn’t have all that much in common with the French poetic realist movies of the 30s which are generally regarded as important precursors of film noir. Quai des Orfèvres is also a police procedural, and it’s a showbiz movie.

It’s a showbiz movie with the emphasis on the seedy sleazy side of the business. If you want to get ahead you might not have to be willing to sell your soul but you certainly have to be willing to sell your body. Getting ahead means making producers and promoters happy in the bedroom.

Jenny Lamour (Suzy Delair) is a popular singer in a theatre that appears to be a French equivalent of British music hall. Jenny is very ambitious. She intends to use her sex appeal to get to the top. How far she is prepared to go is debatable. She probably doesn’t know herself. She hopes not to have to go as far as actually sleeping her way to the top but we get the feeling that it’s an idea she wouldn’t dismiss out of hand. She’s certainly more than willing to be groped.

Jenny is married to her musical accompanist, Maurice Martineau (Bernard Blier). He’s extremely jealous and possessive and it has to be admitted that he has some justification for not trusting his wife.

Their friend Dora lives in the same apartment block. There’s some kind of romantic triangle going on between these three but the nature of that triangle does not become clear until later. Dora is a photographer.

Jenny is hoping to sign a contract with movie producer Georges Brignon. It’s obvious that Jenny hopes to get the contract without actually sleeping with Brignon (although she’d be willing to do everything short of having actual sex with him). It’s also obvious that Brignon has no intention of giving her the contract unless she does have sex with him. Jenny gets herself into a very awkward situation.

There’s a murder. Jenny, Maurice and Dora will all be suspects at some stage. Inspector Antoine (Louis Jouvet) is shabby and seedy and doesn’t give the impression of being over-competent but he’s been a cop for a lot of years and he can be dogged.

The script will eventually throw a few curve balls at us.

The three key characters are neither overly sympathetic nor overly unsympathetic. They have their faults but they have their good points and when they behave badly their actions are usually at least understandable. Jenny is cheerfully amoral. Dora seems oblivious to conventional morality. Maurice is much more moral, but that doesn’t make him better than the two women.

There are several things that sharply distinguish this movie from Hollywood films of the same era. The endings of Hollywood movies of this era were very predictable since usually there was only one ending that the Production Code Authority was going to permit. But in a French film, unconstrained by the Production Code, you can’t make any assumptions about the ending.

It’s also much more sexually open than any Hollywood offering of that period. There are very strong hints that Dora wants to be more than just good friends with Jenny. The movie is quite open about the fact that Jenny slept around before her marriage. The movie does not suggest that this makes her a wicked woman. Dora is quite unembarrassed by the fact that much of her income comes from taking nudie photos of girls. There is no suggestion that there is anything shocking or shameful about this. All of these things are pretty much taken for granted.

There’s plenty of sexual tension without any actual sex, which is of course a very sound approach for the movie to take. Sex, sexual jealousy and thwarted desire drive the actions of the characters.

The police are also portrayed less sympathetically than in Hollywood movies. They’re unethical and sneaky and brutal and generally unpleasant.

The acting is uniformly excellent. I was particularly impressed by Suzy Delair whose performance is both vibrant and nuanced.

Quai des Orfèvres does not turn out in quite the way you might expect although there are certainly clues that point towards the actual ending. A very good movie. Highly recommended.

Kino Lorber’s DVD (they’re released it on Blu-Ray as well) offers an excellent transfer. This release confirms the company’s formidable reputation for atrocious audio commentaries. In this case we get endless lists of film credits for every bit part actor and assistant hairdresser involved in the movie.

But it’s a fine movie and the disc is worth buying for that reason.