The best Marcel Pérès’s crime movies

A US Army colonel in France tries to track down an escaped sex maniac.

Marceau Léonetti, a competent and energetic officer stops by chance the son of an influential lawyer driving under the influence of alcohol. A few months later, the lawyer falsely accuses Léonetti as being violent and incompetent. As a result Marceau is transferred to a small police station, where he meets young and beautiful Jeanne. Soon they are faced with a tough investigation.

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of both revenge and kindness render him front-page news.

On board a train bound for the port city of Le Havre, France, railroad stationmaster Roubard murders Grandmorin, who seduced his beautiful young wife, Severine. Engineer Jacques Lantier, stuck in Le Havre while the train is being repaired, also begins a passionate affair with Severine, who tries to entice the handsome stranger to murder her controlling husband. However, Lantier has a secret urge of his own that changes everything.

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.

After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events the led him to the killing.

During an orgy with minor girls, some old and wealthy notables are being murdered by a small group of leftist young revolutionaries. Very soon the police are tracking down Virgile Cabral, the leader of the group. Meanwhile, Virgile's brother and only relative, Vincent, a violonist (and a thief), comes back to Paris. They have not seen each other for three years. Vincent does not believe in the revolution. He only tries to live as he wishes to live. But by looking for his hunted down brother, he has no other choice than to be involved in a fight which is not his.

The aunt of Alfred Puc, a meek tax-collector in Paris, dies while riding in a moving van. The driver, not wishing to be bothered by a police interrogation, hides her corpse in a cupboard before notifying Alfred. But the van is stolen. Alfred, being the heir of a rich lady, begins a frantic search to locate the missing van and the cupboard because one can't claim an inheritance if there is no 'corpus delecti.' In his search, he gets caught up in an underworld web and finds the body of a murdered gangster in his room. He finally locates the cupboard but promptly loses it again. But, wait, it isn't "finis' time, yet.

Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.

A young Italian fugitive and his older protective brother hide among the grape pickers at a vineyard in Provence.