For fans of French film noir, it’s a match made in heaven: Jean Gabin, in the full splendor of his late 1950s comeback, brings his signature seen-it-all stoicism to Georges Simenon’s famous fictional detective, Jules Maigret, whose vacation plans are spoiled by a serial killer stalking women in the Fourth Arrondissement. Jean Delannoy, a frequently overlooked talent, gets across a pungent feel for lower depths Paris, with supremely elegant camera movements, while crafting a startling policier, surprisingly brutal for it’s time. Maigret Sets a Trap, which has slipped through the cracks of film history, and is extraordinarily deserving of rediscovery.
