User Reviews

Mr. And Mrs. Marton, each approaching Maigret at separate times, claim that their life is in danger at the hands of the other. What an interesting couple these two are. He sells electric trains (and parts). She sells women's lingerie. He says his wife will poison him. She is worried because her husband has a gun. Maigret thinks they're in need of psychiatric help. But he trusts his instincts, enters their world, investigates their lives, and watches, and waits. What else can he do?

The film opens with a slight alteration from George Simenon's novel, but it's unimportant. Unfortunately, the film will deviate further from the novel as the episode unfolds. By "deviate" I don't mean the scriptwriters change the plot. They don't. If you compared a basic outline of the novel's plot to that of the film they would align, but what is missed in the film is what underlies the actions. I don't wish to give anything away, and won't, but in the book and film there is the same guilty party (OK you might say, film aligns with book) but in the book Maigret wishes someone else was the culprit. Some of the underlying suspicions and angers of the novel are ignored and some relationships sweetened.

The actors play their roles nicely. All were well-cast. I enjoyed the electric trains, the city shops, and Maigret's initial befuddlement upon being approached by Xavier Marton. And to be fair, if I judge this episode without a comparison to the novel (and thus to the story I expected to see) does it hold up? I think it does. The story told here moves along nicely and the motives are reasonable (if a bit weak). I did care about the characters and the mess in which they find themselves, and so I can recommend this one. But I can't help myself and must say that there's a sinister depth which could have been included in the script but was not.

Saw this on the Talking Pictures channel (UK, old films and TV). They had previously shown the 1960s series (50+ episodes, BBC, B&W) featuring Rupert Davies, a generally acclaimed Maigret.

We've also seen the excellent 12 episodes (2 series) that ITV did (90s) with Michael Gambon as Maigret (terrific portrayal) and the less successful later efforts with Rowan Atkinson in the lead.

This Cremer version is of course French, with subtitles, but they are not too wordy, so fairly easy to follow. Also very French, lots of atmosphere, meaningful looks, thoughtful silences.

I see some reviews refer to how faithful this Maigret is to the books, a ludicrous statement in one respect, as Lucas, his main assistant in all the books I've seen, has almost completely disappeared!

I haven't liked all the episodes so far of this Cremer version, but some have been WONDERFUL. SADLY, this one is one of the worst of the entire series, taking 2 hours to tell the same story that the old BBC version did in one.

The other present reviews refer to the plot, and as usual Whalen is quite accurate in those details, except that he seems overly taken by the style the story was delivered in?

The story as portrayed was frankly quite ludicrous, starts with Maigret in Brussels for an awards ceremony, then he gets accosted quite easily by both halves of a married couple, each frightened the other will kill them? Yeah, right.

He gradually finds out why they are having problems, basically they've drifted apart, and should separate, but apparently he cannot advise this? The wife's sister (widowed, but not old and in fact rather attractive) lives with them as a kind of unpaid housekeeper, she resents her status, and rather likes the husband. Meanwhile, wifey is much more impressed with her handsome boss, who is putting her in charge of a planned new Paris shop.

So, simple advice would be to tell the wife to go and enjoy Paris, leave hubby to stay with his trains shop and the sister-in-law. Simple.

But instead we get bogged down -- and frankly bored to tears, with Maigret talking to all parties and getting 2 lesser lights of the Brussels police to follow the participants. On the way, the director gives us some silly jokes based on one of the detectives getting his name muddled up by all who talk to him. Laugh -- I nearly started.

Eventually there is a death, who did it? Well, not many characters to choose from, and by the end of almost 2 hours, I was beyond caring. It was well enough done, the players did their best with a poor script, but this was way down the list of this Cremer version. Style, yes. In this case, substance was crucially missing!!