La menace (1977)

With hindsight,Alain Corneau's best works are his second (Police Python 357),the third one (this one) and the fourth effort(série noire).The first two are unpretentious suspense movies which are quite gripping.THe last one is a different matter:much more ambitious in scope ,Corneau ,abetted by the late Patrick Dewaere,peaks and shows his limits the same way.Subsequent works will be overblown sagas (Fort Saganne),boring arty works (tous les matins du monde) and blatant commercial duds (le prince du Pacifique).

"La menace" and "POlice Python 357" look like each other.Both feature Montand ,trying to get away with an inextricable situation.In both movies,in order to fool the POlice,he accumulates false pieces of evidence,clues made up from start to finish,you name it...Enough is enough!Sometimes the viewer is fed up .It's more obvious in "la menace" than in "Police Python 357" because the pace is too slow,and the movie suffers from an inexpressive Carole Laure.MINOR SPOILER:It's really too bad that highly superior Marie Dubois should disappear so early in the story(after 25 minutes!)END OF SPOILER

Montand was not that much exciting an actor either.Best male part comes from Jean-François Balmer,playing a die-hard Colombo ,but with a clean raincoat.The ending is rather unusual and nicely absurd;But ,should the Canadian long-distance truck drivers see this movie,they might not agree with the picture of them Corneau gives to the world.