Man on the Eiffel Tower (DVD, 2008)

Attention classic-moviephiles, mystery-suspensephiles, Francophiles and just world-cinemaphiles in general: the wait is over! The fully-restored print of the 1949 The Man On the Eiffel Tower directed by stars Burgess Meredith and (uncredited) Charles Laughton is available at last and only by Kino International. At last we can now forget about the numerous public-domain prints that have circulated for years: faded muddy color or grainy choppy black-and-white. The UCLA Film and Television Archive is due our eternal thanks for discovering a believed-lost 35-mm print and restoring every frame of this vibrant, rare-in-color film noir that was filmed in the experimental Ansco process (murky and moody yet rich and vivid at the same time). An American-French co-production released by RKO Radio Pictures (the greatest film studio that ever was, IMO), the astounding on-location photography and gymnastic, eye-popping camerawork up and down and around the famed tower of the title (it is almost the central character) enables the movie - as well as the City Of Paris - to retain a freshness and aliveness and contemporary, independent film-look of today that would simply not have been there in a studio-bound production. It is also the non-glossy, non-shiny, grittiness of the AnscoColor lensing that is perfectly in tandem with the restrained, yet unmistakable "joie-de-vive" quality of the Georges Simenon novel on which the film is based. Also, this slightly jarring, off-the-center, look and feel of the movie (the "mies-en-scene" in film terms) beautifully underscores the subtlety of the fine-textured performances of the three male stars: Charles Laughton as the seemingly bumbling yet razor-sharp Inspector Maigret, Franchot Tone as the perpetrator who thinks he is above law and justice, and Burgess Meredith as the clumsy, vision-impaired scapegoat desperate to prove his innocence. At the time of its release, the critics generally regarded director-of-photography Stanley Cortez as the true star of The Man On The Eiffel Tower, underrating the acting as perfunctory and bland. Sixty years later it is time for reassessment and reevaluation, and this writer feels that it is the restraint and layered dexterity of the three male star performances juxtaposed against the spectacular backdrop of Paris that gives this picture an edgy effectiveness and slightly unvarnished, offbeat style in tune with today's style of filmmaking. I strongly recommend this dvd if you love Paris, or things French, or great crime stories, or actors the like of Laughton, Meredith and Tone that are quite irreplacable. Or like me, you are an appreciative afficionado of film restoration and are consistently amazed and grateful when a new, long-lost gem of cinema is restored to its original glory. Try to see this at least on a 32-inch tv screen for the next-best thing to a real theater - you will almost feel the City of Paris enter your living room! But accept no imitations! Look for the Kino label on the upper right corner of the box for the authentic, restored print - not the public domain prints. And enjoy a true film treasure! --- Reynolds Clough