Inspector Maigret (Albert Préjean) is unwittingly dragged away from his long-deserved holiday to solve a baffling case of a corpse found in a wardrobe during a move. His bullish colleague Amadieu (Henri Vilbert) is certain that the workers who transported the wardrobe are the killers but Maigret is unconvinced especially as corpses begin to pile up. Who is this mysterious killer who sends the police anonymous letters signed only Picpus?

Albert Préjean stars as Maigret in this wartime Continental Films take on the famous Georges Simenon character. He is a terrific leading man, cool, charming, witty, and stoic, displaying all the qualities that made such Hollywood actors as Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper and William Holden stars. Of course, his portrayal of the commissaire is about as far from the heavy-set, taciturn man described by Simenon as possible, but it works within the confines of this film.

Indeed, the whole movie seems to owe more to American noir than anything written by Simenon. There's little trace of the sombre atmosphere and the psychological analyses that are the chief characteristics of the Maigret novels. Instead, "Picpus", as directed by Richard Pottier, fills its runtime with numerous twists, pretty girls, and even a climactic fight scene which impressed me with its realistic and brutal nature. Maigret develops a fondness for the sexy private detective by the name of Berthe (Juliette Faber) but is she truly an ally or is she a femme fatale. No prizes for those who guess correctly.

The novel is adapted for the screen by Jean-Paul Le Chanois and the screenplay's a mess. To be honest, I'm not a fan of the original novel, translated as "To Any Lengths" either, with its preposterous plot and cartoonish characters, but Le Chanois' adaptation takes all those flaws and enhances them by adding a whole host of needless characters, blind allies, and red herrings. By the end, he has tied himself up in so many knots, that he doesn't even bother to explain everything forgetting several major subplots along the way. The body count balloons from two to seven, and the final explanation doesn't make much sense seeing how it relies on a series of highly improbable coincidences.

But, for all the shortcomings of the plot, "Picpus" actually works as a fairly entertaining and well-made thriller. This is mostly down to its solid cast, led by the highly likeable Préjean, and reliable direction from Richard Pottier. He does a great job of mimicking Hollywood thrillers with their noirish atmosphere and off-beat cinematography inspired by German expressionism. There are several great scenes set in front of an enormous map of Paris equipped with lightbulbs that shine whenever a crime is reported on a certain street. I was also impressed by Pottier's brief but imaginative use of split-screen in the scene in which Maigret first learns of the crime.

Even Le Chanois' script, when it isn't too busy trying to untangle its Gordian plot, delivers several memorable scenes. As a fan of the Maigret novels, I enjoyed how it picks apart the commissaire's unusual methods and brings them into conflict with his colleagues' standard operating procedure. "Maigret's methods may be fanciful, but they work," says his boss (Antoine Balpêtré) only to later revert his opinion. "Intuition has never brought us anywhere". In a rare moment of poetic introspection, Maigret describes his intuition as his geometry in which "the triangles and circles are alive. They have hearts and heads. Must be understood. The shortest way from one point to another isn't always a straight line."

There's plenty of humour in "Picpus" as well, mostly in the form of Maigret's bumbling, overweight assistant Lucas (André Gabriello). He's no one's idea of refined comedy, but he's also not as grating as most comic relief characters are. He's no Stepin Fetchit, that's for sure. I enjoyed the subtler comedic moments more, for sure, like the third-act sequence in which Maigret goes looking for a suspect at a Native American-themed dinner, or the running gag about slippery parquette. The comedy in "Picpus" is not its greatest strength but it also isn't obnoxious or distracting the way it is in some thrillers from the same period.

In conclusion, "Picpus" is very far removed from Simenon's creation but as a French take on film noir, it is a decent, entertaining effort. I especially enjoyed Préjean's performance and the moody cinematography. It isn't the kind of film to satisfy your need for psychological thrillers and profound characterisation, but it will scratch that rainy-day itch quite nicely.

The most imaginative bit of this early Inspector Maigret entry comes near the start: it is a flashback / split screen combo (i.e. We see flashbacks on half of the screen, the present on the other half). The rest of the film is much too talky and muddled, though Albert Prejean is a terrific Maigret - he alone pushes my rating to **1/2 out of 4.

The previous poster is incorrect in stating that this was the first Maigret movie, they had in fact been appearing for more or less a decade; be that as it may I find a strong sense of irony in a film titled after a real street in Paris which is kick-started by the discovery of a body in that very same Rue Picpus. Should you find yourself in the vicinity - and it's near Nation if anybody asks you - and specifically outside the convent at number #36 (don't hold me to that, it's a couple of years since I was last there) between the hours of 2 - 4p.m Monday through Friday and ask nicely the concierge will hand you a key that fits the gate in the courtyard adjacent to her office. If you then stroll down the tree-lined allee you find inside the gate and go through a second gate on your right you will be in a small private cemetery, probably no more than 100 graves tops; above the last one on your right flies the Stars and Stripes for this is the last resting place of Lafayette, a well-liked aristocrat who survived the French Revolution and helped the Americans win their own for which a grateful new Nation awarded him a handsome cash sum and a few choice acres. Being an incurable Romantic, presumably a requirement for serving in bloody Revolutions he decided he would like to be buried in American soil so when he returned to La Belle France he took with him a large trunk full of the stuff and there he lies, in American soil in Paris, France. But that's not the irony I spoke of; just above eye-level in the wall adjacent to Lafayette's tomb is a plaque stating that a few metres on the other side of the wall lie 1,500 headless torsos that once held the bluest blood in France. Think about it for a moment; it's July, it's hot, and Madame Guillotine is working her socks off and that means STINK, Man. So, one fine night the guy that owned the estate on Rue Picpus woke up to find a hole in his wall and for several nights thereafter they kept bringing in these headless stiffs and throwing them into two pits in his yard. They don't put this in the Guide Books, but then they wouldn't, would they, nevertheless it's a fact and that's why I find it ironic that with 1,500 to choose from Maigret should confine himself to the odd two or three further up the street. That apart what can I tell you. It's a Maigret movie, it's Continental, it's Albert Prejean, who was never really comfortable with the role. It's entertaining. Go see.