Quai N°1 Voie A ("Platform 1 Track A") is a colour 50-minute crime-mystery TV movie aired by the Troisième chaîne of ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française) on July 16, 1974. ORTF produced this "dramatique policière" through its regional station of Marseille. Helmed by Jean Faurez (Gorri le diable, Histoires extraordinaires), Quai N°1 Voie A was written by the great TV director/scriptwriter Marcel Bluwal (Les nouvelles aventures de Vidocq) with author, journalist and screenwriter Nino Frank (Une enquête de l'Inspecteur Ollivier). As a film critic, Frank is considered the father of the expression "film noir" (1). Nino Frank and Jean Faurez were friends since they worked together on the movie Service de nuit (1944). The project of Quai N°1 Voie A actually originated in 1956 when it was meant to be aired live under the direction of Marcel Bluwal (2).
In a railway station of southern France, some people are waiting for a night train to Paris. Among them there's a group of scouts, two old ladies, a serviceman, a twenty-something girl from a good family and her mother, a commercial traveller, a winegrower and a mustachioed man. There's also two gendarmes with a handcuffed gangster named Panzani, whom Commissaire Marcel Carbone and Inspecteur Maillard must bring to the capital for his involvement in a brawl. In reality, Carbone thinks Panzani is behind the robbery of a jeweller and that his accomplices are at the station to help him escape. Soon the criminal gets a gun and runs, until he's shot dead on the rails but not by the police. Who did it? Why didn't Panzani use the car left by his gang in front of the station?
Effective despite its obvious budget constraints, Quai N°1 Voie A offers a riveting whodunit with a few surprises. The script claims a Série Noire (3) feel, especially in the dialogues (written by Nino Frank). The use of the railway station location is rather astute. Starring Jean-François Calvé (Traitement de choc) as Commissaire Carbone, Guy Saint-Jean (Inspecteur Maillard), Jean Luisi (Panzani), Raoul Guillet (Jean Bartal), Jean-Paul Frankeur (Dieugarde, the serviceman), Jean Winiger (Claude Dalmas), Fransined — the brother of French comic actor Fernandel — as Danjou, Agnès Desroches (Les Boussardel) as Françoise Fontvielle, Liliane Coutanceau (Évelyne), Gisèle Bridoux Préville (Madame Fontvielle), Madeleine Boucher and Raymonde Wattier (the Sartou sisters), etc.
Produced by Claude Simon. Cinematography by Jean-Louis Picavet. Editing by Guy Bertagnol. Michel Clément is the assistant director. There's no original music, as often for the ORTF productions of this era. Quai N°1 Voie A is available on Madelen, the streaming service of INA.
(1) L'Écran français, August 28, 1946.
(2) Télé 7 Jours N°742 (July 13, 1974).
(3) The famous French crime fiction publishing imprint created by Marcel Duhamel in 1945.
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