La Tête d'un Homme

'Night envelops me,' wails the chanteuse, keying the mood of lethargy and doom, as the movie follows consumptive killer Inkijinoff in pursuit of his death wish. The erratic Duvivier could be quite a sharp director on occasion: the opening survey of feet trudging a greasy pavement, the sound of dice in a cup overriding the bar-side hubbub, the single shot of a cop interviewing a series of back-projected witnesses. But this early Simenon adaptation (Baur as Maigret) has far too much time for the tiresome Inkijinoff, and the film will appeal most to extreme romantics and to those investigating the origins of noir.