Maigret

Well, that’s the place to start then, at least regarding the novels. And they do have that in Kindle format, so I’ll send myself a free sample as a reminder and a starter.

I think that’s well described. They are too wildly different characters. Nothing defines the rather laid-back Gambon Maigret like the end of “Maigret and the Night Club Dancer” where he shares a bottle of champagne with the sleazy owner of the titty club where one of the girls worked who was killed. (Nicely played by Tony Doyle, by the way, who plays a good, if one-dimensional, part as the hard-driving employer, Brian Quigley, in Ballykissangel.)

In many ways, this is a wonderful display of the morally-dubious French.

By the way, I thought I hadn’t seen this episode before. And I hadn’t. But I had seen the story before in Rowan Atkinson’s “Maigret in Montmarte.” It’s the same story with a different title.

As I recall now, the one officer who fell in love with the stripper is wonderfully pathetic in the Atkinson version. He’s a little more moderately pathetic in the Gambon version — but cringingly pathetic in both. (What guy can resist the charms of a stripper?) And for me the story got a little confusing. Two different women were killed and I had a hard time keeping up with which woman they were talking about. I found the plot to be a muddle. If you sat me down, I’m sure you could explain it to me.

I don’t remember if I had the same reaction to the Atkinson version. Likely not.

Today, I viewed the first three episodes of season two and found them enjoyable. The production work has improved somewhat since the first season.

So far, there are two episodes which were in both the Gambon and Atkinson series. The first is "Maigret Sets A Trap." The second is titled "Maigret and the Night Club Stripper" in the Gambon series and "Maigret in Montmartre" in Atkinson's. Each version is good, and follow the same story line. There are only slight differences between the two. 

One of the things I particularly enjoy when I see older British period pieces for the first time, is coming across many of today's famous actors early in their careers. In "Maigret in Montmartre", Minnie Rider plays the stripper. More interesting was Freddie's wife Rose, who is played by Brenda Blethyn, aka "Vera." I had to replay the scene to make sure it was her, even though I knew she was in that particular episode. It is sometimes amazing how different actors look in different parts.

I will finish up that last three episodes in the next few days as I have to return the set to the library this week. They don't extent checkout times for DVDs. So far, I am very glad that I checked out this series. I am even happier that I didn't have to pay a cent for the pleasure.

Last night I watched Maigret on the Defensive which is season 2, episode 3 of the Gambon series.

I got the impression that this was a hacked-up version of what might have been a good novel.

Don’t read further if you haven’t seen it. I’m still confused how, at the end, Maigret figured out that the dentist wasn’t just an abortionist but a serial murderer. And I’m not quite sure how he figured out he was even an abortionist.

Maybe I fell asleep, but I don’t remember a string of murdered girls being mentioned anywhere. And I don’t remember how he came to the conclusion that the dentist had been murdering girls. And how he deduced that he was an abortionist was extremely thin. All we saw was a sad-looking young woman waiting in his office. It would certainly be true that Maigret would have been privy to more information via just experience, such as that dentists of the time often moonlighted as abortionists. But we’re not privy to this information.

Perhaps worst of all was his interview with the dentist’s receptionist at the end. That conversation didn’t seem remotely realistic. Nor did the compliant dentist at the end make much sense.

The entire setup of the plot was strange. Maigret, apparently unable to sleep, gladly accepts the phone call late at night of an anonymous woman who says she’ll commit suicide unless he meets her. She pretends to be drunk and eventually, out of the goodness of his heart, Maigret takes her to a hotel and finds her a room. But it’s all a setup (and one that still doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense to me).

A realize that we never learn Columbo’s first name. Everyone just calls him “Columbo.” Same with Maigret. But would his wife call him Maigret? What a strange thing when I heard that in this episode.

Overall, whatever interest (and it wasn’t much) that this episode built up was leaked out by rather cliched plot points and the various oddities mentioned above. But I still have the feeling that the novel must have been better and made more sense.

I just recall them talking about the possibility. I don’t remember any clear evidence. It just seemed lie, Shazam, Maigret had him pegged as an abortionist and a murderer and I wondered if I had missed a half hour of the show.

Like I said, I’m guessing this was a roughly (very roughly) edited version of the book trying to be squeezed into television time. I don’t think they succeeded very well.

And the girl calling Maigret seemed like a giant McGuffin. He was set up far too easily. He went along far too easily. Anyone in their right mind (even if he went to that initial meeting alone because of a perceived emergency) would have called someone for backup — and certainly would have called someone before taking her in the middle of the night to a hotel and renting a room. I just didn’t buy it.

Yes, I love that aspect. With Jesse stone it is fairly clear (at least to detective buffs) that his “coply intuition” is a combination of accumulated experience and his ability to read people. And there’s just that nice bit left over where you suppose that it isn’t anything mystical but that he taps into things he’s perhaps seen but that don’t quite reach the conscious mind.

I don’t dislike Gambon as Maigret. But I don’t think some of the plot-points or characters are as convincing.