In a nutshell, I'd call this police drama 'pretty good'. But not nearly as excellent as some reviewers have made it out to be. On the plus side are the standout performances of tough cop Lino Ventura and his rookie assistant, the enchanting Marlène Jobert. In the early 1970s Jobert was probably France's most in-demand actress, so lovely and so endearing that it was hard not to fall in love with her. I succombed immediately on seeing her irresistible performance in René Clément's classic Rider on the Rain, where she is perfectly paired with the redoubtable Charles Bronson.Also on the plus side are many gorgeous glimpses of Paris, by day and by night. On the minus side though, is the contrived drama of the movie. Like many French police films of the period, it tries too hard to be more than a police story. It strives to be a meaningful essay on modern society, morality and lost illusions.Still, it's pretty good, and if you're a fan of directors like Sidney Lumet, Arthur Penn and Elia Kazan, you'll probably find a great deal to like in Dernier domicile connu. But if your taste runs more toward Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, you can skip this one and go directly to Rider on the Rain.

Very good, solid French thriller from Director, Jose Giovanni, who also wrote the script. Police are supposed to be searching for key witness in an important trial and give the task to an out of favour cop, known for a tendency to get the job done by whatever means. The marvellous, Lino Ventura is that cop and almost as an aside he's given a rookie assistant played by Marlene Jobert. It is an early film for her but she had already been in Louis Malle's, Thief of Paris and Godard's, Masculin Feminin! Both are great in this and just as well because they are the film as we follow them around the outskirts of Paris, following clue by clue. Much of the film is clearly shot in the streets and is really well done. Being French there is always time to stop off in a cafe or bistro and these slower scenes are also very well done. This doesn't sound particularly thrilling but it is faultlessly put together and never lets up as we race from corner to corner of those charming Parisian streets.

"Dernier domicile connu" was shown the other day on a French cable channel. This was the third film of Jose Giovanni, a man who wrote extensively for the French cinema and went on to direct his own material. Mr. Giovanni's forte was the "policier" in which he excelled with the themes he decided to tackle, as he proves here.This film shows a felicitous casting with Lino Ventura and Marlene Jobert in the principal roles. Both actors show an easy chemistry between them as two police following the trail of a man wanted to testify in a judicial process. To make things different the two cops decide to concentrate in the daughter of the man being sought. The pivotal witness is not their key interest, knowing that of they find the little girl, she will lead them to the father, while at the same time, opposing criminals try to outsmart the policemen.Mr. Giovanni, who based his screenplay on a Joseph Harrington novel of the same title, takes the viewer all over the Paris of those years, taking the viewer all over the city, setting the story in out of the way places many visitors never get to see. The best thing in the film is a young, and fresh, Marlene Jobert, perfect as the rookie detective. Lino Ventura is effective as the tough as nails cop working against the clock to get to the witness.

Lino Ventura is simply perfect as this noir hero, too professional to rebel against the absurdity of his job. But why would they have him wear a small hat? The big broad-shouldered, former pro wrestler, Lino Ventura in brown-over-black 1970 style (remember Shaft?), OK, but who wears a hat in 1970? It makes him look like Inspector Clouseau. In the book Francis X. Kerrigan wears a dust jacket, OK this is the overused private coat, but keep it simple, in tune and in genre.Fortunately the story is good, it's a sharp and clean police procedural and it shows that José Giovanni loved it. He loved that it displayed a stubborn officer walking his beat in the midst of general hostility against police. It was really fashionable to criticise the police around 1969 and Giovanni is happy to drive the point home more than once, most prominently in Paul Crauchet's monologue, but generally in the absurdity of Lino Ventura's assignments. Subtlety is definitely not Giovanni's forte but here it blends well with the simple police procedural.All in all this could have been a tremendous modern noir with a better director (Melville, Sautet). The result doesn't show important directorial choices. Camera work and editing are average, and sound editing is poor while François de Roubaix's score would have been sufficient to carry most of the images. In the end you will feel as if the movie simply vanishes from your memory while you were really rooting for Ventura and Joubert minutes before.