A young woman has been murdered-shot in the back of her head-in her posh apartment. Maigret has few suspects: a night club musician, a famous surgeon, his medical assistant, the surgeon's wife, the wife's sister, and the young woman's housekeeper. The apartment building has limited access. The surgeon and his wife live on the floor above the murder victim. What might the connections be?
I really enjoy this series. The filmmakers understand Simenon and that understanding's manifestation in the films make these Maigret mysteries special. Here though, I think they, at best, deliver a mediocre Maigret story. I do think the book's conclusion is a bit underwhelming when during an interview a story is told that doesn't align with another version of the same incident. From that verbal tidbit Maigret has what he needs to declare the murderer. It's a stretch. In this film we get the addition of an orphanage and its subplot. Both of these additions-again, neither is in the book-are part of the solution to the mystery, to the revelation of the murderer. And that murderer is different than the one in the book. I don't mind an addition or embellishment here or there. It's the nature of book-to-film, but if you do it you better do it well. Here, sadly, they don't. The ending is a muddle.
I did enjoy Danièle Lebrun in the role of the surgeon's wife.