I have to defend this movie, oddly enough from one of Duvivier's great admirers, the indispensable dbdumonteil. It really isn't meant to be anything but a comedy - the convoluted murder plot is only an outline to hang the gags on (just because it's based on a pulp crime novel doesn't mean it has to be a film noir). And the tone is beautifully judged - we enjoy watching Fernandel squirm out of deadly situations knowing he will somehow remain unscathed. Another reviewer made an interesting reference to the Dick Powell tongue-in-cheek noirs, a good comparison to highlight the pitfalls of this kind of hybrid: a film noir doesn't work if you're winking at the audience; we lose all interest when nothing is at stake (even Hawks fell into this trap). But comedies have been playing with murder and mayhem since silent days. And the gags are not just there for fun, they're integrated into the structure. Example: an egg rolls off the kitchen table and Fernandel tries haplessly to clean it up, prefiguring the mess he will soon get into and find it even harder to extricate himself from. Then a second egg rolls to the edge of the table and he catches it (perfect timing!) cluing us that he has his wits about him when he needs them. Chalk up another winner from a great director and star!

Crime writer James Hadley Chase (who was more popular in France than here)did a 1954 book Tiger By The Tail which was the source for this vehicle for the French comedian Fernandel,in a somewhat different role as a lonely, sensitive man caught in a dark world of prostitution, murder, blackmail, and other skullduggery. The combination works due to the skill of master director and co-scripter Duvivier, but it's understandable that especially a native viewer may not accept a comedian in such a role. Similarly I have never quite taken to Dick Powell, whom I associate with high pitched singing in 1930s Warners musicals, as a tough guy in the 40s. There is humor, such as a kitchen scene with our hero trying to fry some eggs, and a long joke where he just can't seem to get rid of an incriminating package associated with the first in a series of killings. When an American art dealer (played by John McGiver, who happened to be there at the time making Love In The Afternoon) enters the story, the dealer is constantly followed by a henchman who likes to juggle things, a touch worthy of Tati. The Paris backgrounds add something to the story; though there is less night than one expects in a noir, when those scenes do come, such as the one where he first goes to Montmartre, with some reluctance, to visit a call girl, the lighting by veteran DP Roger Hubert (Children Of Paradise) positively glistens. Duvivier's overall style is fluid, such as a backstage long take where the blackmailer meets him, the camera moving back and forth among the props and costumes, to discuss getting the name of the real murderer. He plays up the part where Fernandel discovers the woman he has come to see is dead, after the lights have suddenly gone off, by using a high angle view and a mirror above her bed.And the ending, where our hero, back to his job as a musician, is shown to have inherited a dog (from the now deceased blackmailer ) hiding in a basket, is charming. One could sum up the flavor of this underrated film by a comment another prostitute makes to him later in the story: :"Tu es une drole de terreur." (For a frightening guy, you're kind of funny.")

Coming after his awesome film noir "voici le temps des assassins" the same year,everything Duvivier would produce afterward was bound to be a let -down :such was the case for "l'homme à l'imperméable" which fluctuates between comedy and drama .Comedy because of Fernandel's personality:it's hard to take his character seriously (a character he had often played in the past:the less-than-handsome guy who falls for a gorgeous woman).Drama because it's a Hadley Chase novel ;and Fernandel ,who is an ideal Pagnol actor,is definitely not a film noir hero.It's pussyfooting all the way.While it's entertaining,it cannot be looked upon as an achievement for the highly talented Duvivier.