User Reviews

A young woman has been murdered-shot in the back of her head-in her posh apartment. Maigret has few suspects: a night club musician, a famous surgeon, his medical assistant, the surgeon's wife, the wife's sister, and the young woman's housekeeper. The apartment building has limited access. The surgeon and his wife live on the floor above the murder victim. What might the connections be?

I really enjoy this series. The filmmakers understand Simenon and that understanding's manifestation in the films make these Maigret mysteries special. Here though, I think they, at best, deliver a mediocre Maigret story. I do think the book's conclusion is a bit underwhelming when during an interview a story is told that doesn't align with another version of the same incident. From that verbal tidbit Maigret has what he needs to declare the murderer. It's a stretch. In this film we get the addition of an orphanage and its subplot. Both of these additions-again, neither is in the book-are part of the solution to the mystery, to the revelation of the murderer. And that murderer is different than the one in the book. I don't mind an addition or embellishment here or there. It's the nature of book-to-film, but if you do it you better do it well. Here, sadly, they don't. The ending is a muddle.

I did enjoy Danièle Lebrun in the role of the surgeon's wife.

This episode has some very effective acting from some stalwarts. Daniele Lebrun is very touching as the neglected wife of the great surgeon, Bernadette Lafont, a legend for Truffaut, Chabrol and others, plays a would-be blackmailer, Brigitte Catillon is another victim of the great man's callousness. Bruno Cremer plays Maigret with his usual smoothness.

This is for Lucy R Fisher -- just reviewed this episode, presumably having seen it on Talking Pictures TV last night?!

We've been watching this French series, interesting and atmospheric, albeit the location filming is in Prague (hence some Czech actors and technicians) - but the pace can be irritatingly slow!

You mention the Davies (early 60s BBC) and Gambon (90s ITV) versions, but the Gambon ones did not include this story.

The Davies ones could be a bit rushed, occasionally they clipped off a few corners from the books, but overall - given the limitations of 60s tech, and low low budgets! - they were OK. Ewen Solon was a perfect Lucas (even though shorter and rounder in the books!).

Gambon was also a great Maigret, an hour and 20 mins, maybe hour and a half, but great acting, and a bigger budget.

BY COINCIDENCE, the DAVIES version of this same story is on TPTV THIS Saturday, 10th, (or catch it on their catch-up online) so if you want to refresh your memory, there it will be. Oh, and yes these French ones ARE taking a few liberties with the books, as they see fit. However, NO excuse for Lucas NOT being his R-H man, was always so in the books!!

I'm pretty sure the ending of this one was changed, as they could show Maigret in a sympathetic light. And they'd already used up the time so needed that ending to wrap things up?!

AND NOW - added a few days later -- we've seen the Davies version again, and the title makes some sense. In this one though, they've changed the ending, added a new character, added a whole sub-plot with some children being raised in a sort of informal orphanage, and of course Lucas, ever-present in the books, doesn't appear!

In this Cremer version, the 'mistake' in the title makes NO sense -- there is no mistake! -- and there is a wildly contrived ending with a car accident, presumably because without that car crashing into the murderer, they'd have run well over the already leisurely nearly 2 hours of these episodes. Simenon has a few coincidences in the books, but he didn't write this one! So now I've downgraded my mark to a 6. The acting was fine, but I'm not forgiving this mucking about with the plot! And WHERE is Lucas?!