Henri-Georges Clouzot

Quai des Orfèvres

Quai des Orfèvres

Blacklisted for his daring "anti-French" masterpiece Le corbeau, Henri-Georges Clouzot returned to cinema four years later with the 1947 crime-fiction adaptation Quai des Orfèvres. Set within the vibrant dance halls and crime corridors of 1940s Paris, Quai des Orfèvres follows ambitious performer Jenny Lamour (Suzy Delair), her covetous husband Maurice Martineau (Bernard Blier), and their devoted confidante Dora Monier (Simone Renant) as they attempt to cover one another's tracks when a sexually orgreish high-society acquaintance is murdered. Enter Inspector Antoine (Louis Jouvet), whose seasoned instincts lead him down a circuitous path in this classic whodunit murder mystery.

Film Info

  • France
  • 1947
  • 106 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • French
  • Spine #193

Special Features

  • Interviews with director Henri-Georges Clouzot and actors Bernard Blier, Suzy Delair, and Simone Renant, from the 1971 French television program Au cinéma ce soir
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Poster gallery from the film’s international release
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Essay by author Lucy Sante

    New cover by Christine Ditrio

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • Interviews with director Henri-Georges Clouzot and actors Bernard Blier, Suzy Delair, and Simone Renant, from the 1971 French television program Au cinéma ce soir
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Poster gallery from the film’s international release
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Essay by author Lucy Sante

    New cover by Christine Ditrio
Quai des Orfèvres
Cast
Louis Jouvet
Detective Lieutenant Antoine
Suzy Delair
Jenny Martineau, aka "Jenny Lamour"
Bernard Blier
Maurice Martineau
Simone Renant
Dora Monnier
Charles Dullin
Georges Brignon
René Blancard
The Captain
Jean Daurand
Detective Picard
Pierre Larquey
Emile, the taxi driver
Robert Dalban
Paulo, the thief
Claudine Dupuis
Manon, the prostitute
Charles Blavette
Poitevin, the ticket-taker
Jeanne Fusier-Gir
Cloakroom attendant
Paul Toscano
and his Gypsy Orchestra
Credits
Director
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Producer
Roger de Venloo
Screenplay
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Screenplay
Jean Ferry
Inspired by the novel Legitime Defense by
Stanislas-André Steeman
Cinematography
Armand Thirard
Production design
Max Douy
Assistant director
Serge Vallin
Cameraman
Louis Née
Costume design
Jacques Fath
Sound
William Robert Sivel
Editing
Charles Bretoneiche
Music
Francis Lopez
Musical direction
Albert Lasry
Lyrics
André Hornez
Director of production
Louis Wipf

Current

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By Michael Koresky

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Henri-Georges Clouzot

Writer, Director

Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot

One of the few contemporaries of Hitchcock who gave the Master of Suspense a run for his money, Henri-Georges Clouzot dealt in misanthropic, black-humored tales of greed, jealousy, murder, immorality, and revenge. Though perhaps best known for 1955’s Gothic noir Diabolique, one of the most influential thrillers of all time and a film that Hitchcock himself admired (and wished to outdo), Clouzot first made his mark in French cinema in the 1940s. His politically charged, 1943 Le corbeau was a highly controversial story of a poison-pen letter that uncovers the dirty secrets of an entire town; viewed in retrospect, it’s Clouzot’s first important statement on the corruption of community. Subsequent Clouzot films would be built on the same theme in different milieus: the entertainment underworld of Quai des Orfèvres, the mercenary imperialism of the white-knuckle adventure The Wages of Fear. Once widely misunderstood—the director was charged with Nazi sympathies for Le corbeau and was derided by the French New Wave—the work of Henri-Georges Clouzot today looks far ahead of its time.