Maigret's Dead Man (2016)

Maigret plunges into the murky Parisian underworld.

Director:

Jon East

Writers:

Stewart Harcourt (screenplay), Georges Simenon (novel)

Stars:

Ian Puleston-Davies, Dorottya Hais, Mark Hadfield

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ian Puleston-Davies	...	Inspector Colombani
Dorottya Hais	...	Nicole (as Dorrottya Hais)
Mark Hadfield	...	Albert Rochain
Iván Fenyö	...	Pietr
Dénes Bernáth	...	Victor Poliensky
Grant Stimpson	...	Barman
Karen Gagnon	...	Police Telephonist
Rowan Atkinson	...	Chief Inspector Jules Maigret
Shaun Dingwall	...	Inspector Janvier
Leo Staar	...	Inspector LaPointe
Peter Schueller	...	Reveller
Mark Heap	...	Dr. Moers
Hugh Simon	...	Dr. Paul
Matt Devere	...	Detective
Russell Dean	...	Post Office Clerk (as Russel Dean)

Storyline

A series of vicious, murderous attacks on three wealthy farms in Picardy hit the national headlines and the elite Brigade Criminelle at the Quay Des Orfevres is called upon to lend its expertise in tracking down the brutal gang responsible for the slaughter. However, Inspector Maigret is resolute in investigating the murder of an obscure anonymous Parisian, an investigation that ultimately solves both crimes.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

Czech English

Release Date:

25 December 2016 (UK)

Also Known As:

Maigret's Dead Man

Filming Locations:

Hungary

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fragile Films, Pioneer Stillking Films, Ealing Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

First English-language adaptation of this particular Maigret story; neither the Rupert Davies series nor the Michael Gambon had used it.

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Goofs

At 32 minutes and 10 seconds into the film, Chief Inspector Jules Maigret and two other inspectors follow a lead to the Au Petit Albert pub. Maigret puts a black glove on his right hand to open the door to the pub.

They all enter the pub and investigate inside.

While looking around, one of the inspectors finds a picture frame on a dresser and picks it up with his bare left hand as Maigret stands to the inspector's right side looking on at the picture.

The movie then cuts to a close-up shot of the picture frame showing the pictures. In this close up shot, the inspector's left hand is seen holding the left side of the picture frame, as he shows the picture to Maigret standing to his right side.

The inspector then asks Maigret (while the movie holds the close up on the picture frame) "Do you recognize anyone." At this time Maigret's bare, non-gloved left hand is seen coming into the bottom of the frame to grasp the picture frame.

Just as Maigret grabs the picture frame, the movie then immediately cuts to a wide shot at a low angle showing the inspectors looking at the picture frame.

The continuity goof is now clearly visible at this point because Maigret is now holding the picture frame with his now gloved, right hand.

Since the cut was a seamless straight cut which immediately carried the the scene, there was not time for Maigret to switch the picture frame to his right hand.

This is the continuity error.

On a side note, both inspectors initially handle the frame (before the continuity goof) with their bare hands which can leave their fingerprints on the outside of the picture frame.

This handling of the picture frame with their bare hands negates the initial concern Maigret implied when first putting on his right hand glove when opening the door to the pub.

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Quotes

[to the man who murdered Albert Rochain and who has just described him as "a little man - a nobody"]
Chief Inspector Jules Maigret: I want you to know that his name was Albert Rochain and that he had a wife and that they were trying to start a family. And for all his little bets and his little winnings, his life was more successful than yours, because *he* didn't end up like an animal in a cage, despised by everyone, with nothing to look forward except his execution.

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Crazy Credits

In the final credits the character played by Matt Devere is listed as "Detetctive"

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Connections

Followed by Maigret in Montmartre (2017)

User Reviews

Solid, qualitative TV-thriller.

The first entry in this new TV-film series that I watched, "Maigret Sets a Trap", had of course the advantageous / surprise element of seeing comedy actor Rowan Atkinson in one of his first and only dead-serious roles. That alone made the film worth watching, but on top of that it was also a tense and atmospheric adaptation of Georges Simenon's terrific novel centered on Chief-Inspector Jules Maigret. Atkinson already proved in the first film that he's perfectly suitable and capable of playing such a stoic and mature role and, judging by "Maigret's Dead Man", you'd almost consider him more of a veteran drama actor rather than a slapstick figure. The plot here is once again very engaging, the efforts that were taken to recreate Paris during the 1950s (by filming in Hungary) are very well-done and the moody atmosphere and dark themes compensate more than widely enough for the lack of actual action. In the Northwest of France, a few hours driving from Paris, entire families of farmers are brutally slaughtered and their houses robbed. Meanwhile, in Paris, Maigret is hooked on another mysterious case. A nervous man, clearly in some kind of lethal danger, attempted to get in contact with him, but vanished before Maigret could physically meet him. Later that night, the murdered and heavily mutilated body of this man gets dumped in the middle of a busy Parisian market square in true mafia style. Maigret is forbidden by his supervisors to further investigate the case, as he must assist his colleague in the farmhouse murders, but you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes (or even Jules Maigret) to figure out quickly that both cases are connected. "Maigret's Dead Man" assures good, solid made-for-television craftsmanship; nothing more but certainly nothing less.