Let's be realistic.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

THE MAN ON THE EIFFEL TOWER is an adaptation of one of Georges Simenon's detective novels featuring the Poirot-alike detective, Maigret. It features a headlining Charles Laughton playing Maigret himself, but oddly Laughton is the weakest part of the movie and can do nothing with the part. He just sort of wanders around and simpers without doing anything in the way of crime fighting.The murder story is a little better, once it gets going. It sees a wealthy aunt murdered and the finger of suspicion falling on a down-on-his-luck knife grinder, played by Burgess Meredith who was old even at this early stage of his career. Meredith does his best to elude capture by the police, but Maigret suspects another man, played by the delightfully urbane Franchot Tone, is responsible.If I'm honest, THE MAN ON THE EIFFEL TOWER isn't really up to much as a detective story. The pace is plodding, the story underdeveloped, and the characters largely unlikeable. Where it succeeds is in the visuals, which are frequently stunning. This was an early colour production that brings a teeming, bustling Paris to life and is sure to have location photography at all of the major places, bringing them to life. Even better, the film features a series of tense chase sequences which frequently use high-rise locales to their advantage. The Eiffel Tower-set climax is the best remembered of the bunch, but I preferred a rooftop chase that takes place halfway through and is like an early Parkour scene. David Belle, eat your heart out!

"The Man on the Eiffel Tower" is in the public domain. Because of this, the film is owned by no one and it's hardly likely anyone would ever think of restoring it. It's a shame, as the color print is a mess--so faded it almost looks like it was filmed in sepia!This film is a strange murder mystery that is investigated by the famed French detective, Inspector Maigret (Charles Laughton). It's an odd one. On one hand, they've caught a guy who was clearly in the house around the time of the murder (Burgess Meredith). However, he seems an unlikely man to have butchered the two women in the home. Instead, it is possible that the rich lady's heir might have had something to do with it. Additionally, a really loopy guy (Franchot Tone) sure acts guilty--but they have nothing on him. What's next? See the film...or don't bother.The reason I wanted to watch the film is that I am currently in Paris and just last night went on the Eiffel Tower--so it sure seemed like an opportune moment. However, in addition to a dirty print, the film's problems often overshadowed the good. As for the good, the performance by Laughton was nice and seeing the actual streets of Paris was very nice. But, on the other hand, Tone's performance was so ridiculously over the top that it looked almost like it was meant as a comedy---but it wasn't. Plus, the finale on the Eiffel Tower SHOULD have been better but seeing Tone climb the tower faster than any marathon runner was utterly ridiculous! All in all, a film that isn't bad...it just isn't very good either.

As I started watching The Man On the Eiffel Tower it looked like it was going to go in the direction of Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. Robert Hutton is having a sit down with his wife Patricia Roc and his mistress Jean Wallace in a Paris cafe. He gets an offer from Franchot Tone who was all ears that he'd kill Hutton's aunt who controls the family pursestrings so that Hutton could be independent. Tone doesn't lack for chops. He not only does the deed with a maid thrown in for good measure, he manages to pin the crime on milquetoast Burgess Meredith who just happened on the scene. Fortunately police inspector Maigret as played by Charles Laughton doesn't buy the pat scenario. He turns up Tone as a suspect, but he can't quite pin it on him. Tone's character reeks of Nietzchean superiority and France had just gotten liberated from a country that bought into that philosophy. Probably for today's audience, especially an American one, that particular dynamic can't be appreciated.Even an escape allowed by the Paris police by Meredith blows up in Laughton's face and threatens to ruin the career of Inspector Maigret. Fortunately Laughton has a few tricks up his sleeve.What we have in The Man On the Eiffel Tower is three very distinguished players from stage and screen who got together and made the film almost as a lark. Tone spent his entire film career trying to get out from under typecasting as a debonair gentleman in tails who usually loses the girl in the end to a bigger name. Right after this was done Franchot Tone did exactly that role in Frank Capra's Here Comes the Groom. His role here as Radek is certainly miles away from his usual parts. Tone produced this as he also produced another independent film the year before, Jigsaw, which was shot in New York.He got friend Burgess Meredith to direct and play the stooge. The story unfortunately does sag at times until the climax chase scene on the Eiffel Tower. That whole sequence is almost like The Third Man except where Harry Lime seeks escape in the sewers of Vienna, superman Tone leads his pursuers up the Eiffel Tower. In the end though he's not quite the superman he thinks he is.Charles Laughton made a nice Inspector Maigret. This is the second French police inspector of literature he's done. But there sure is a world of difference between Maigret and Javert of Les Miserables. In fact Laughton is far more like Sir Wilfred Robards in Witness for the Prosecution than Javert. It's too bad that director Meredith didn't have the kind of computer generated special effects and had to rely on brave stunt men and actors to do the job. If Man on the Eiffel Tower were filmed today, I'm sure it would have been far better. This criticism is almost a cliché, but Alfred Hitchcock could have really done something with The Man on the Eiffel Tower.

I wonder what this film would have been like had Burgess Meredith not taken over directing from Irving Allen. I showed my Super 8 print of it to a packed house of two recently - to rediscover that it is a gripping detective mystery moving at a rapid and entertaining pace.While not flawless (dialogue is delivered in a very perfunctory and unimaginative way occasionally), it is well worth a peek with some great Paris location work, some initial intrigue over who had actually committed murder, and a battle of nerves between Inspector Maigret and the manic-depressive Johann Radek character.The scene where the Tzigane band intrude on the café conversation just too much is fun.But, if for no other reason, it should be seen for its gripping, death-defying climactic suicidal climb on the Eiffel Tower and Burgess Meredith's fall onto the power cables.I'd love to see the restored Ansco-color version which showed at the National Film Theatre a year or two ago.