Proud, eccentric, and antisocial, Monsieur Hire has always kept to himself. But after a woman turns up dead in the Paris suburb where he lives, he feels drawn to a pretty young newcomer to town and discovers that his neighbors are only too ready to suspect the worst of him.
Acting
Michel Simon's physicality — every stillness screams
Direction
Duvivier's shadow-drenched suburbia, guilt as architecture
Writing
Simenon adaptation: lean, cruel, inevitable
Director
Julien Duvivier
Michel Simon
Monsieur Hire
Viviane Romance
Alice
Paul Bernard
Alfred
Charles Dorat
Michelet, le secrétaire du commissaire
Lucas Gridoux
Mr Fortin, le pharmacien
Lita Recio
Viviane
Max Dalban
Capoulade
Émile Drain
Monsieur Breteuil dit le petit caporal
Guy Favières
Monsieur Sauvage
Louis Florencie
L'inspecteur Marcelin
Charles Dorat
L'nspecteur Michelet
Marcel Pérès
Cermanutti
Michel Ardan
Fernand
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released weeks before France's infamous 1947 strikes, its mob violence read as political allegory.
Duvivier originally shot two endings; the bleaker cut was suppressed until 1989 restoration.
FR
