Review of The Man in the Raincoat

Crime writer James Hadley Chase (who was more popular in France than here)did a 1954 book Tiger By The Tail which was the source for this vehicle for the French comedian Fernandel,in a somewhat different role as a lonely, sensitive man caught in a dark world of prostitution, murder, blackmail, and other skullduggery. The combination works due to the skill of master director and co-scripter Duvivier, but it's understandable that especially a native viewer may not accept a comedian in such a role. Similarly I have never quite taken to Dick Powell, whom I associate with high pitched singing in 1930s Warners musicals, as a tough guy in the 40s. There is humor, such as a kitchen scene with our hero trying to fry some eggs, and a long joke where he just can't seem to get rid of an incriminating package associated with the first in a series of killings. When an American art dealer (played by John McGiver, who happened to be there at the time making Love In The Afternoon) enters the story, the dealer is constantly followed by a henchman who likes to juggle things, a touch worthy of Tati. The Paris backgrounds add something to the story; though there is less night than one expects in a noir, when those scenes do come, such as the one where he first goes to Montmartre, with some reluctance, to visit a call girl, the lighting by veteran DP Roger Hubert (Children Of Paradise) positively glistens. Duvivier's overall style is fluid, such as a backstage long take where the blackmailer meets him, the camera moving back and forth among the props and costumes, to discuss getting the name of the real murderer. He plays up the part where Fernandel discovers the woman he has come to see is dead, after the lights have suddenly gone off, by using a high angle view and a mirror above her bed.And the ending, where our hero, back to his job as a musician, is shown to have inherited a dog (from the now deceased blackmailer ) hiding in a basket, is charming. One could sum up the flavor of this underrated film by a comment another prostitute makes to him later in the story: :"Tu es une drole de terreur." (For a frightening guy, you're kind of funny.")