Monday, 5 January 2026

VAN DER VALK/PAS DE FRONTIÈRE POUR L'INSPECTEUR (1972-1975)

A Dutch detective investigates through Europe.

Created by English novelist Nicolas Freeling (1927-2003), Simon "Piet" Van der Valk is a cynical and intuitive Amsterdam police commissioner. Married to Arlette, a French woman, the Commissaris appeared in 11 books from 1962 to 1989. Freeling spent most of his life in continental Europe and he was an admirer of Belgian author Georges Simenon. Van der Valk is often compared to Maigret.

On-screen, Piet Van der Valk was first portrayed by German actor Wolfgang Kieling in the British film Amsterdam Affair (1968). The best remembered version is the Thames Television series Van der Valk (1972-1973, 1977, 1991-1992), starring Barry Foster. Bryan Marshall played the character in Because of the Cats/Niet voor de poezen, a Dutch-Belgian movie released in 1973. Since 2020, Marc Warren (Hustle) plays the detective in Van der Valk for ITV. In 1971, German theatre and cinema director Peter Zadek (Ich bin ein Elefant, Madame) wanted to adapt Nicolas Freeling's Van der Valk novel Gun Before Butter (1963) as a feature film (1). 

Peter Zadek spent some years in England, where he directed a short film (2) and worked for the BBC. He talked about his idea to Ernest Liesenhoff, head of the Munich production company Iduna Film and suggested him to make Gun Before Butter in English for a cinema release abroad. Lord Michael Birkett, a British producer, was hired on the project (3). Liesenhoff exec produced the movie and WDR co-financed it for a premiere on German Television. English actor Frank Finlay (Casanova, Cromwell) was cast as Van der Valk. German-born British screenwriter Robert Muller (Mystery and Imagination, Die Gentlemen bitten zur Kasse) wrote the scenario with Peter Zadek.

In the 1950s, Van der Valk investigates the murder of Meinard Stam, a rich fortysomething man stabbed in Amsterdam. He meets again with Lucienne Engelbert, a young woman who now works at a gas station in Belgium. Meinard Stam's money came from butter trafficking. Peter Zadek wanted Austrian actress Elisabeth Stepanek to play Lucienne but Michael Birkett and Robert Muller believed she wasn't suitable for the role, which went to English actress Cyd Hayman (4). Françoise Prévost was chosen for the key part of Arlette. Also with Franco-Belgian actor Pierre Vaneck (Aux frontières du possible) as Stam, the ex-French cinema icon Françoise Arnoul (Solange de Winter), Oscar Homolka (Samson), Günter Lamprecht, etc. Music by Peter Schirmann. 

Cinematography by Walter Lassally (Zorba the Greek, Tom Jones). Editing by Max Benedict (Tarzan goes to India). Ambitious, Gun Before Butter was shot from February to March 1972 in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Venlo), Germany and Belgium (including Blankenberge). The excellent 93-minute movie, carried by Frank Finlay's performance, first aired on WDR as Van der Valk und das Mädchen on October 5, 1972. The release in theaters was cancelled when it occured that Nicolas Freeling's literary agent sold simultaneously the rights of the novel to Iduna Film and the rights of the Van der Valk character to Thames Television (for original stories), much to the discontent of the latter (5).  Austrian television ORF showed Van der Valk und das Mädchen on November 27, 1974.

Following the success of Gun Before Butter, WDR and ORF greenlit Van der Valk und die Reichen. Frank Finlay and Françoise Prévost returned in this outstanding 95-minute TV movie adapted from the novel The King of the Rainy Country (1965) by Robert Muller (6) and helmed by a young German director named Wolfgang Petersen. Petersen directed seven Tatort, the crime drama collection of ARD, between 1971 and 1977. Das Boot (1981) and The Neverending Story (1984) led him to Hollywood for which he did In the Line of Fire (1993) or Air Force One (1997). Iduna Film produced Van der Valk und die Reichen with Austrian company Schönbrunn-Film. The shooting took place at the beginning of 1973 in Amsterdam, Cologne, Innsbruck, Kitzbühel and the federal state of Burgenland (Austria).

Piet Van der Valk is on temporary secondment for a special assignment which requires absolute discretion. He's asked to find Jean-Claude Marschal, the heir of a big corporation, who vanished suddenly. Van der Valk interrogates Anne-Marie, Marschal's wife. The case is linked to the disappearance of a young girl during the Cologne carnival. With Judy Winter (Anne-Marie), Helmut Käutner (Canisius), Hans Helmut Dickow (Stössl), Rudolf Strobl (Tappeiner), Marte Harell (Miss Kramer) Erich Padalewski (Serak), Otto Ambros... Exec produced by Robert Siepen and Nils Nilson. Music by Nils Sustrate. Cinematography by Jörg Michael Baldenius. Editing by Liselotte Klimitscheck. WDR aired Van der Valk und die Reichen on December 26, 1973.

Frank Finlay was very busy during the 1970s with movies or series such as Shaft in Africa (1973), The Three Musketeers (1973) and its sequel The Four Musketeers (1974), Bouquet of Barbed Wire (1976) or Murder by Decree (1978). However, the actor starred in a third Van der Valk. Françoise Prévost came back too as Arlette. Produced by ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française) with Iduna-Film for the Deuxième chaîne and WDR, Van der Valk und die Toten was announced in January 1974. Adapted from the book Double-Barrel (1964) by Robert Muller, the 95-minute TV movie was filmed in the Netherlands in Spring 1974 by a French crew under the direction of Marcel Cravenne (L'éducation sentimentale, Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret).

Van der Valk is sent to Zwinderen, where the residents are terrorized by anonymous letters and Arlette is obliged to follow him. Only the mayor and his secretary know the motive of their presence. The detective is intrigued by Berenson, a recluse Holocaust survivor. Jacques Monod, often cast as a "bigwig", is the mayor. With Odile Versois (Miss Lindberg), Hans Christian Blech (Berenson), Danielle Girard (The mayor's wife), Vernon Dobtcheff (Reinders),   Dominique MacAvoy (Betty's sister), Alan Adair (Prosecutor), René Arrieu (Dairy manager), Jacques Alric (Policeman), André Jaud (Police sergeant), Andrée Champeaux (Mrs Barkhuis) and Eva Simonet (Betty Reinders). Produced by Nicole Flipo, Jean Baudot and Raymond Houlette. Editing by André Chaudagne and Claudine Thoreau.

Cinematography by Albert Schimel. Betty Willemetz is the sound illustrator for ORTF. The end title music is Camptown Races (Version 2) by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. The brilliant Van der Valk und die Toten premiered in Germany on SWF and SDR on June 7, 1975. Three more films were planned but that was the last one. ORTF was dismantled in December 1974 and the Frank Finlay version of Van der Valk, distributed by Beta Film, arrived in France in 1975-1976 on Antenne 2 as Pas de frontière pour l'inspecteur (7). The ex-Deuxième chaîne began with Le bouc émissaire (Van der Valk und die Toten) on September 13, 1975. Discrétion absolue (Van der Valk und die Reichen) followed on November the 1st, 1975 and Le milieu n'est pas tendre (Van der Valk und das Mädchen) was shown on January the 1st, 1976.

Frank Finlay was dubbed in French by Guy Tréjan and Françoise Prévost by Michèle Bardollet. Pierre Cholodenko wrote the French dialogues of Le milieu n'est pas tendre and Discrétion absolue. Robert Scipion penned those of Le bouc émissaire. Pas de frontière pour l'inspecteur was actually preceded in France by the Thames Television Van der Valk, aired by TF1 from July 5, 1975. Frank Finlay pursued a long and eclectic career.

(1) (3) (4) Peter Zadek, Die heißen Jahre (2006).
(2) Simon (1954), with Sean Connery.
(5)  Peter Zadek, Die heißen Jahre (2006) + https://www.webofstories.com/play/walter.lassally/227
(6) Eleanor Wolquitt is credited by some sources, including IMDb, for the "concept".
(7) Aka Pas de frontières pour l'inspecteur.

http://frankfinlay.net/index.html
https://cult-tv-lounge.blogspot.com/2025/03/van-der-valk-season-1-1972.html 

See also:  

https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2020/04/van-der-valk-series-1-episode-1-love-in_30.html

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Friday, 5 December 2025

LE COUP DE POUCE (ANTENNE 2, 1975)

Le coup de pouce is a colour 97-minute French mystery TV movie produced by ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française) and aired by Antenne 2 on January 16, 1975.
 
It's also a very peculiar episode of the feature-length detective series Les Cinq Dernières Minutes, which ran from 1958 to 1996.
 
Les Cinq Dernières Minutes is one of the first series in the History of French television. Created by journalist, director, scriptwriter and producer Claude Loursais, it was launched on January 1, 1958 on the only channel of RTF (Radiodiffusion Télévision Française), the predecessor of ORTF. Les Cinq Dernières Minutes went through several changes in three "eras" until France 2 shown its 149th episode on December 20, 1996. The first era (1958-1973) was penned by Loursais — who helmed most of it — with Fred Kassak, Louis C. Thomas, Michel Lebrun, Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe, Henri Grangé, André Maheux, Jean Cosmos, etc. This version starred Raymond Souplex as Inspecteur/Commissaire Antoine Bourrel and Jean Daurand as Inspecteur Dupuy. 
 
Les Cinq Dernières Minutes was originally a mystery gameshow aired live. After the format and live broadcasting were dropped,  the series explored different socio-professional environments in episodes shot in studio on video and on 16mm film for the locations. The popularity of the programme peaked in the 1960s-1970s and turned Raymond Souplex and Jean Daurand into TV stars. Bourrel's catchphrase (« Bon Dieu, mais c'est bien sûr! ») even entered the vernacular. From 1967 to 1973 there was a German adaptation called Dem Täter auf der Spur. Les Cinq Dernières Minutes switched from black and white to colour in 1971. Dupuy was gradually phased out after Jean Daurand's health issues.  
 
In September 1972, Raymond Souplex worked on the 56th episode, Un gros pépin dans le chasselas. The shooting was interrupted by the ORTF rolling strikes of October but the scenarios of two episodes, Les griffes de la colombe and Fausse note, were ready (1) so Souplex rehearsed the former on November 20. He died two days later from cancer, aged 71. Claude Loursais decided that Episode 56, finished thanks to script changes and editing, would be the last one (2). Nevertheless, four TV movies were tested between July 1974 and January 1975 (not in production order) on the Deuxième chaîne and Antenne 2 (3): Rouges sont les vendanges, Fausse note, Si ce n'est toi (formerly Les griffes de la colombe) and Le Coup de pouce. 
 
Those films, independent from the series though built on its "formula", tried new investigators and they are retrospectively considered as "La période intermédiaire" of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes. The famous theme music by Marc Lanjean (4) was notably absent. Written by Jean Cosmos (in 1973) and directed by Claude Loursais, Le coup de pouce was aired by Antenne 2 on January, 16, 1975. Christian Barbier, who reached fame with the ORTF drama L'Homme du Picardie (1968), returns as the Commissaire Le Carré from Rouges sont les vendanges. Le Carré's dog Rougeole is back too but not Inspecteur Ménardeau (Marc Eyraud). Rouges sont les vendanges was the third appearance of Ménardeau. In Si ce n'est toi, the character was the colleague of Commissaire Lindet (Henri Lambert) and he solved a case on his own in Fausse note.
 
Adrien Ridon, an old sculptor, lives with other artists in a Parisian cité soon to be demolished. Jacques Mouriez, an industrialist, and his wife Cathy invite Adrien for a drink at their appartment. Ridon gets to know a friend of Mouriez, chef de cabinet at the ministry of culture, and asks him if he could help listing his master work as a monument to prevent the demolition of the cité and the expulsion of the artists. Cathy Mouriez meets sculptor Yves Le Gouverneur, a friend of Adrien Ridon. Later, Yves dies in an apparent accident. The second Le Carré is nowhere near as good as Rouges sont les vendanges. Talkative and overlong, Le coup de pouce was majoritarily shot (5) in the Buttes-Chaumont studios. Christian Barbier arrives after 49 minutes.
 
In February 1973, Claude Loursais considered the idea of a new series centered on a commissaire and a juge d'instruction (investigating judge) (6). In Le coup de pouce, Commissaire Le Carré works with a debonair judge, played by Maurice Jacquemont. Bernard Musson is Fosseuse, his sarcastic clerk, after an appearance as another character in Si ce n'est toi. There was a juge d'instruction in Un gros pépin dans le chasselas, co-written by Jean Cosmos. Years later, the screenwriter co-created Julien Fontanes, magistrat (1980-1989) for TF1. Maurice Barrier delivers a great performance as Yves Le Gouverneur. Sybil Saulnier (Cathy) was noticed by Life Magazine in 1963 for a "striking resemblance" with Marilyn Monroe. Actress and singer Jacqueline Danno plays Raymonde, Yves' ex-wife. 
 
With Harry Max (Adrien Ridon), Jean-François Poron (Jacques Mouriez), Josée Yanne (Hélène), Philippe Valauris (Albert), Hélène Vallier (Gina Solari), Maurice Lédé (Pol Sapiterni), Louis Lyonnet (Robert), Louis Julien (Frédéric), Nicole Derlon (Hairdresser), Jean Labib (Inspecteur Martineau), Nicole Huc (Lucienne), Eric Meningand and Roland Husson. Produced by Hélène Rambert and Oreste Delsale. Cinematography by Pierre Mareschal. Video editing by Christiane Coutel. Film editing by Joseph Neveu.  Sculptures by Pierre Sizonenko and Simon Jacquemond. Metal sculpture by Michel Hennique. There's no original music, as often for the ORTF productions, and no credited sound illustrator for the use of library music.
 
In 1974, it was announced that Jacques Debary (Poker d'as) was the unnamed commissaire of Loursais' new (as yet untitled) mystery drama, whose shooting of the first episode had begun. Called Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires, this episode was aired by Antenne 2 on May 10, 1975 as part of... Les Cinq Dernières Minutes. Commissaire Broussard (Jacques Debary) had to be renamed Commissaire Cabrol prior to transmission because there was a real-life supercop named Broussard. Marc Eyraud returned as Ménardeau in the following episode for an association with Cabrol which lasted until 1991. Pierre Santini (Un juge, un flic) as Commissaire Julien Massard and Pierre Hoden (Inspecteur Antoine Barrier) were the final duo of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes from 1992 to 1996.  
 
Perrette Souplex, the daughter of Raymond Souplex, guest starred as Bourrel's daughter in a 1995 episode. The episodes of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes from 1958 to 1991 are available on Madelen, the streaming service of INA. Brigade des Mineurs, the 1977-1979 social drama series created by Claude Loursais and starring Jean Daurand as Commissaire Dupuy, is on Madelen too. 
 
(1) Michel Lebrun in Télé 7 Jours.
(2) Télé 7 Jours.
(3)  ORTF was dismantled in December 1974 and the Deuxième chaîne was renamed Antenne 2. The latter became France 2 in 1992.
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Thursday, 6 November 2025

LES CINQ DERNIÈRES MINUTES: PATTE ET GRIFFE (ANTENNE 2, 1975)

Commissaire Cabrol and his deputy Ménardeau investigate the death of a fashion designer.

Patte et griffe is an episode of the feature-length French detective series Les Cinq Dernières Minutes, which ran from 1958 to 1996. 

Created by journalist, director, scriptwriter and producer Claude Loursais, Les Cinq Dernières Minutes is one of the first series in the History of French television. It was launched on January 1, 1958 on the only channel of RTF (Radiodiffusion Télévision Française), the predecessor of ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française). Les Cinq Dernières Minutes went through many changes in three "eras" until France 2 aired its 149th episode on December 20, 1996.  The first era (1958-1973) was penned by Loursais — who directed most of it — with Fred Kassak, Louis C. Thomas, Michel Lebrun, Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe, Henri Grangé, André Maheux, Jean Cosmos, etc. This version starred Raymond Souplex as Inspecteur (later Commissaire) Antoine Bourrel and Jean Daurand as Inspecteur Dupuy. 

Les Cinq Dernières Minutes started as a live mystery gameshow. After the format and live broadcasting were dropped, the programme explored different socio-professional environments in episodes shot in studio on video and on 16mm film for the locations. The popularity of the series peaked in the 1960s-1970s and turned Raymond Souplex and Jean Daurand into TV stars. They even played similar police detectives in a couple of movies (1) and Bourrel's catchphrase (« Bon Dieu, mais c'est bien sûr! ») entered the vernacular.  From 1967 to 1973 there was a German adaptation called Dem Täter auf der Spur. In 1971, Les Cinq Dernières Minutes switched from black and white to colour. Dupuy was gradually phased out after Jean Daurand's health issues.

After the death of Raymond Souplex in 1972, four TV movies were tested by Loursais between July 1974 and January 1975 (not in their production order) on the Deuxième chaîne and Antenne 2 (2): Rouges sont les vendanges, Fausse note, Si ce n'est toi and Le Coup de pouce. Those films, independent from the series though built on its "formula", tried new investigators and they are retrospectively considered as "La période intermédiaire" of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes. The famous theme music by Marc Lanjean (3) was notably absent. Claude Loursais almost kept Christian Barbier  (L'Homme du Picardie), who starred as Commissaire Le Carré in two of the TV movies, but they didn't agree on the financial terms. In 1974, it was announced that actor Jacques Debary (Poker d'as) was the unnamed commissaire of Loursais' new (as yet untitled) mystery drama, whose shooting of the first episode had begun.  

This episode, called Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires, was shown by Antenne 2 on May 10, 1975 as part of... Les Cinq Dernières Minutes (4). Prior to airing, Debary's character was introduced to the press as Commissaire Broussard but had to be renamed Cabrol because of a real-life supercop named Robert Broussard. La mémoire longue, his second case, marked the return of Marc Eyraud as Ménardeau. The Columbo-esque Officier de police principal/Inspector was first seen in Si ce n'est toi, Fausse note and Rouges sont les vendanges (5). Filmed in May 1975 and aired by Antenne 2 on November 15, 1975, Patte et griffe (initially titled Veuf mode) was written by Jean Cosmos and directed by Claude Loursais. Produced by Antenne 2, it's the third Cabrol in airing order (6). Commissaire Cabrol and Ménardeau are sent to the fashion house of Lucas de Lucé, a renowned Haute Couture designer found dead in the lift of his Parisian building.

Lucé was severely diabetic and he died while he was stuck in the lift during a power outage but Commissaire Cabrol finds something strange in the lift shaft. Soon the investigation narrows in on a model name Cynthia and the husband of the designer's mistress. The conventional plot of Patte et griffe is carried by the contrast between the cynical Cabrol and the not fully awake Ménardeau plus an excellent guest cast but heavied by too much exposition, including a lecture on the remuneration of the apprentices in the Haute Couture industry and a 13-minute conversation in the middle of the episode. Stage, cinema and television actress Nadine Alari is Madeleine, Lucas' right-hand woman. On November 15, 1975 she could be seen on two channels simultaneously as she was also on FR3 in a recording of the play Marie Tudor (7). 

Though he appeared in Le lièvre blanc aux oreilles noires as a different character, François Dyrek plays Riton. Actress Anémone (Nadine) had supporting roles in three episodes of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes in a row, this one included. In the 1980s, she became a star of the big screen and had a versatile career in films such as Le père Noël est une ordure (1982) or Le grand chemin (1988). With Prudence Harrington (Cynthia), Danielle Duroux (Alice), Pierre Zimmer (Lucas de Lucé), Claude Nicot (Fleuret Coutillier), Jeanne Herviale (Fleuret's mother), Bernard Dumaine (Charles Boutok), Paula Dehelly (Madame de Ravens), Annick Roux... Produced by Pierre Terrier. Cinematography by Albert Schimmel. Video editing by Christiane Coutel. Film editing by Joseph Neveu. 

There's no original music, as often for the ORTF productions, and no credited sound illustrator for the use of library music (from the Patchwork catalogue). The association between Cabrol and Ménardeau lasted until 1991. They were replaced by Pierre Santini (Un juge, un flic) as Commissaire Julien Massard and Pierre Hoden (Inspecteur Antoine Barrier) from 1992 to 1996. Perrette Souplex, the daughter of Raymond Souplex, guest starred as Bourrel's daughter in a 1995 episode. The episodes of Les Cinq Dernières Minutes from 1958 to 1991 are available on Madelen, the streaming service of INA. Brigade des Mineurs, the 1977-1979 social drama series created by Claude Loursais and starring Jean Daurand as Commissaire Dupuy, is on Madelen too.  

The Cabrol-Ménardeau era was shown in Germany on ZDF as Kommissar Cabrol ermittelt - Die Fälle des Monsieur Cabrol.

(1) L'assassin viendra ce soir (1964) and La malédiction de Belphégor (1967).
(2) ORTF was dismantled in December 1974 and the Deuxième chaîne was renamed Antenne 2. The latter became France 2 in 1992.
(3) Arsenic Blues, composed by Marc Lanjean for the movie La Peau de l'ours (1957).
(4) Also called  "Les Nouvelles Cinq Dernières Minutes" by TV magazines.
(5) In Patte et griffe, Ménardeau is introduced as "Officier de police judiciaire Ménardeau" by Commissaire Cabrol and credited as "Inspecteur Ménardeau" in the end.
(6) According to Télé 7 Jours in January 1975, Le collier d'épingles (aired as the fourth episode) was about to be completed before Patte et griffe.
(7) Télé 7 Jours. 
  
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