The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949)

There's a chase across the rooftops of Paris and a hair-raising scene in the high-up girders of the Eiffel Tower but not much else of interest in this 1949 Simenon book adaptation that has Charles Laughton's Maigret and the Paris police mostly just waiting and watching as the suspects in a murder investigation run around in circles.

★★★☆☆

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A Dangerous Profession (1949)

A bail bondsman discovers his girlfriend is married to a crim who needs bail posted and murder and blackmail ensue in this B-grade noir-mystery featuring Raymond Chandler-style fast talk about dames, and Thurston Howell III as a policeman.

★★☆☆☆

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Stray Dog (野良犬) (1949)

A rookie cop in post-war Japan seeks to recover his stolen colt pistol and ends up involved in a manhunt for a murderer in this Akira Kurosawa police-procedural noir classic - said by some to be the first buddy cop movie - a richly detailed depiction of daily Japanese life but also revealing of the extent of Japanese society's code of individual responsibility, suggesting that when responsibility is left to slip, stray dogs turn rabid.

★★★★★

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