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The Man On The Eiffel Tower | 
 enlarge | Director: Burgess Meredith
Actors: Charles Laughton, Burgess Meredith, Franchot Tone
Studio: KINO INTERNATIONAL
Category: DVD
This item is no longer available
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 105931
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc, Original Recording Remastered
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 97 Minutes
UPC: 738329063221
EAN: 0738329063221
ASIN: B001BL2W4Y
Theatrical Release Date: 1949
Release Date: September 16, 2008
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Product Description
Based on a novel by acclaimed writer Georges Simenon, THE MAN ON THE EIFFEL TOWER is a gleefully sinister romp through the City of Lights climaxing in a spectacular scene on the city s most famous landmark. The film follows Inspector Maigret (Charles Laughton) as he investigates a brutal killing that implicates a ne er-do-well playboy (Robert Hutton), a psychotic medical student (Franchot Tone), and a humble knife-sharpener (Burgess Meredith). Featuring a dark, droll script by journeyman screenwriter Harry Brown (A Place in the Sun), THE MAN ON THE EIFFEL TOWER is livened by cinematography by Stanley Cortez (Night of the Hunter) that captures late 40s Paris in the dark, moody palette of the Ansco Color process. The film was begun under the direction of producer Irving Allen. Laughton was so dissatisfied with Allen s work that three days into the shoot he threatened to quit unless Meredith (Rocky) be permitted to take control. Thus did the seasoned character actor land the most unexpected role of his career: director.
NOTE: THE MAN ON THE EIFFEL TOWER was photographed on ANSCO Reversal film, an early single strip color process, and no original elements exist today. This RESTORED film has been preserved from two nitrate projection prints, the only 35mm color copies known to survive.
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| Customer Reviews:
An intriguing, flawed psychological thriller with a fine Franchot Tone performance July 10, 2008
C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
The Man on the Eiffel Tower is an odd failure of a movie. It's disjointed, has no sympathetic characters except Inspector Maigret and his cops, features an overbearing music score and relies heavily on scenic Paris to maintain interest. What I find intriguing is the work of the three lead actors, Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone and Burgess Meredith, especially Tone. The story itself picks up steam in the last half, and the final chase through the iron structure of the Eiffel Tower is fascinating and suspenseful. While elements of the plot are discussed below, everything is known to the viewer within the first 15 minutes.
It's Paris in the late Forties. A young man (Robert Hutton), with his wife (Patricia Roc) and his girl friend (Jean Wallace), is overheard in a bar bemoaning how long it will most likely take before his rich aunt dies and he will inherit a great deal of money. A few days later the aunt is stabbed to death. It's clear that the nephew and the man who overheard his conversation made an agreement. By chance a poor sharpener of knives, Joseph Huertin (Burgess Meredith), almost blind even when he is wearing his thick eyeglasses, burgled the mansion the same night of the killing. He discovered the bodies (the aunt's maid had been killed, too), bloodied his hands and met the murderer, whom he could not recognize. Huertin is caught, but police inspector Jules Maigret doesn't believe he did it. What follows is a cat and mouse game between Maigret and a former medical student, a clever, often charming psychopath named Johan Radek (Franchot Tone). As one of his former professors tells Maigret, "Radek had a remarkable flair for sensing the weaknesses of others." Maigret slowly lays traps for Radek, and Radek taunts and leads Maigret on. The climax is the chase up the Eiffel Tower, with Radek climbing through the iron superstructure, followed by Huertin, with Maigret ascending by the cable-pulled passenger car.
The city of Paris plays an important role in this movie. It was shot on location, and the film is stuffed with visions of the city, from the Cafe Les Deux Maggots, reputed to be the oldest cafe in the city, where much of the plot bubbles, to the elegant Hotel George V, from the Champs-Elyses to the Seine to narrow streets and rooftops. It's a fascinating look at the city, made even more appealing now by the absence of crushing traffic. The interior of the Eiffel Tower becomes an iron maze of trusses, beams and open stair steps.
Laughton plays Maigret as perhaps too avuncular, but his Maigret is just as clever and shrewd as the original. Meredith's role as the nearly blind Huertin is probably less sympathetic than was intended. The character is simply too dull-witted to feel much empathy toward. Tone, on the other hand, plays Radek with great unbalanced charm. He buys Maigret lunch one afternoon at the restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower to preen in his cleverness. Tone manages to combine ego, menace and hysteria in one long monologue directed at Maigret. Franchot Tone has always seemed to me to be an underrated actor. He was a star in the Thirties but slipped steadily down throughout the Forties. His private life was often messy. Still, he could do more with less than most actors and was always, in my view, well worth watching.
The first half of the movie is contrived and disjointed, with Radek barely appearing. When a tense plot point looks as if it's going to be developed, more often that not an excuse for one more scenic chase through Paris arises. The second half of the movie, however, starts to cook. The duel between Radek and Maigret takes over, Maigret sets his traps and Radek's ego leads him to dangerously underestimate Maigret. The last 20 minutes are worth waiting for.
The film must have been a labor of love that didn't work out. Franchot Tone was the co-producer with Irving Allen, who was set to direct. He started filming, then Laughton demanded that Allen be replaced by Burgess Meredith, who then had Laughton direct the scenes in which Meredith appeared. After the movie failed at the box office, Allen bought the rights and buried the film for years. While The Man on the Eiffel Tower is not a successful film, it has much to enjoy.
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