Le mannequin assassiné

Stanislas André Steeman ,who was once one of the best detective stories writers in Europa(Belgium) fell out of favor with the public in the forty last years.Who remembers he wrote the two novels of which HG Clouzot made two indisputable classics, "L'Assassin Habite Au 21" and" Quai Des Orfèvres"?plus another good thriller by George Lacombe (screenplay by Clouzot again) "Le Dernier Des Six".

By 1948,Steeman's fame was still big and directors kept on adapting his novels."Le Mannequin Assassiné " underwent some change :the hero,Commissaire Malaise -a bachelor (?) in the novel - has a wife ,who appears in scenes that should have been left in the can .They did the same for Mr Wens in Clouzot's screenplays and gave him a lover ,but Mila -Malou was played by Suzy Delair who was a much better actress than the histrionic old dear (or is she young?)who stuffs herself with cake and plays poker with the local barflies.

As for the movie itself ,it's not bad ,although inevitably too short (75 min)for lots of characters are involved and it's sometimes difficult to remember who they are and what they have got to do with the plot,even for someone who read the novel before .The atmosphere of the old house is perfectly captured ,notably this old attic the characters would call "La Pampa" when they were young.The cast and credits over a railroad track is a good idea.The "murdered model" was left on the track to be run over by the train;a model bearing the effigy of a young man who died three months before .He was a strange sadistic guy who got most of his fun by (morally or physically) torturing people and pets .And ,in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie ,his death might not be natural and everyone in the house had certainly a good reason to do away with him.