For those not too familiar with the character, Inspector Maigret is a French police detective who is not unlike Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan and Hercule Poirot. Maigret has been in many books, short stories, and films. Kino Lorber has been releasing many Inspector Maigret movies and television shows onto home video in recent years and have now offered a Blu-ray of Picpus and Cecile is Dead! which are a pair 1940s films of the infamous detective. Both films star screen legend Albert Prejean as Maigret.
In Richard Pottier’s Picpus from 1943, the pipe smoking detective Maigret (Albert Préjean, The Metropolitan, The Crazy Ray) is called to action to solve some murders taking place at both the Picpus train station and Picpus street. The corpses of a clairvoyant, a blind man, a doctor, and a real estate agent are all discovered. There might be some kind of connection between them and why they’ve been murdered. Maigret must figure out the connection for these killings and catch the murderer before he strikes again!
In Maurice Tourner’s Cecile is Dead!, (Santa Relli, Jour de Fête, Jericho) plays the role of the title character, who keeps going to Quai des Orfèvres to see Inspector Maigret about some strange things going on in her home. Maigret for some reason is annoyed by her visits until Cecile winds up dead. Now the inspector must find out who killed her!
I enjoyed the two films and made for a nice double-feature of mystery movies in the French style. The two films have great acting, fluid, literate direction and good pacing along with atmosphere that make both Maigret movies a pleasure to watch!
This Maigret double-feature has been given a Blu-ray release courtesy of Kino Lorber. Both movies are on a dual-layered Blu-ray disc. Video quality wise, the two films look identical with strong black levels, with excellent shadow detail, to go with nice, clean whites and a balanced grey scale. Details to both interiors and exteriors are also outstanding. The two movies do look thoroughly cleaned up and polished to the point where very little to no print damage was detected.
Likewise, the French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 channel soundtrack is excellent for the two movies. It is mostly dialogue which is perfectly clear and easy to follow if you understand French, but there are English subtitles available for those of us who don’t. Music and what there is of action noises (cars, yelling and such) are also balanced without anything sounding too aggressive or timid. No age-old anomalies like drop-offs or crackling were detected.
This offering contains no real supplements other than trailers for two Maigret films, Maigret Sets a Trap and Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case.
I think fans of Maigret should without hesitation pick this release up as the films, audio and video quality are excellent. Don’t let the lack of extras deter you, it’s the movies that make this release recommended!
Picpus and Cecile is Dead!
Director – Richard Pottier, Maurice Tourneur
Cast- Albert Préjean
Country of Origin- France
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –2/24/2023