Compartiment tueurs aka Sleeping Car Murders (1965) Masterpiece Policier

"The greatest film policier ever made."(Dave Jenkins SLWB)

Directed masterfully by Costa-Gavras (Z (1969)).

Compartiment tueurs (literally translates as "Killers Compartment") is an excellent "Policier" Noir, but also functions as an Ensemble Noir.

We call them here Police Procedurals, Classic Noir films like Naked City, He Walked By Night, White Heat, The Street with No Name, Appointment with Danger, Mystery Street, The Sniper, Detective Story, Cop Hater, The Tattooed Stranger, and Shield for Murder. Transitional Noir Films like Experiment In Terror, The Manchurian Candidate, In The Heat Of The Night, and In Cold Blood cover the same territory. At the same time there were lots of equally good foreign procedurals, in fact, quite a few UK Noirs are police procedurals a classic of note being The Blue Lamp. There is also Stray Dog and High And Low from Japan, and from Germany one of the catalysts of the sub genre, the original M.

Yves Montand as Inspector Grazziani

 Jean-Louis Trintignant as Éric Grandin and Simone Signoret as actress Éliane Darrès

Catherine Allégret as "Bambi,"

Jacques Perrin as Daniel

The film is also a great Ensemble Noir with quite the interesting cast. Yves Montand as Inspector Grazziani "Grazzi," Jacques Perrin as Daniel, Catherine Allégret as Benjamine Bombat aka "Bambi,"
Pierre Mondy as Superintendent Tarquin, Claude Mann as Jean-Lou Gabert, Jean-Louis Trintignant as Éric Grandin, Simone Signoret as actress Éliane Darrès, Charles Denner as Bob Vaski, Michel Piccoli as René Cabourg, Pascale Roberts as Georgette Thomas, Jacques Dynam as Inspector Malec
André Valmy as Inspector, Philippe Rouleau as Inspector Antoine, Maurice Chevit as Inspector Moutard, Nadine Alari as Mme Grazziani, and many other memorable bit part players.

Compartiment tueurs was written by Sébastien Japrisot and Costa-Gavras and was based on Sébastien Japrisot's novel. The excellent Cinematography was by Jean Tournier, the exceptional ahead of it's time, Film Editing was by Christian Gaudin and the Art Direction was by Rino Mondellini. The innovative  percussive Music was by Michel Magne. 

Wow, here is a film that puts the pedal to the metal and doesn't let up until the last frame. Why the fuck
haven't we, here in the US, seen or heard of this before. Ok I'll venture a couple of guesses. One, it was
released in the US on March 7th, 1966, in the way way off Broadway Coronet Theater at Third Avenue
and 59th Street. and possibly also in Los Angeles in some art house hole-in-the-wall, and then
disappeared. Why? Because there is a great percentage of Americans that have blinders on to anything
that's foreign, and to anything that is not dubbed into English. If they, god forbid have to "read"
subtitles forgedaboudit. And these admissions and declarations come from people who claim to
be movie lovers, Noir lovers, "cineasts," etc., etc.

Its as if nothing outside their own little comfort zone of American movies matters. They'd rather watch
obscure B-Z Hollywood Product than foreign Noir Masterpieces and of course equally great foreign B
films. It's their loss.

Noirsville is dedicated to digging out these obscure, neglected, forgotten titles, and bringing them to English speaking Noir lovers attention. Quite a few of these films are the equal to many American Classic Noir and they weren't under the thumb of a Motion Picture Production Code.

The platform

Compartiment tueurs is ahead of it's time. It's fast paced, stylish, engaging. Marseilles. The station. A young woman Bambi hurries to board the overnight train to Paris. At the end of her car she steps up and bumps into Daniel a boy about her age. He is trying to scam a free trip by eluding the conductor. The metal tips on his shoes puts a run on her stocking. Its a meet cute device that is repeated.

Bambi heads to her sleeping compartment. The compartment contains six bunks. Four of them are occupied. Two women and two men. On the lower bunk on the right is a film actress Éliane Darrès, above her is a cosmetic consultant Georgette Thomas. Above Georgette is a man named Rivolani. On the bottom bunk on the left is René Cabourg an insecure nebbish who is taking up-skirt peeps of Georgette. Bambi takes the middle bunk above him.

Michel Piccoli as René Cabourg

Pascale Roberts as Georgette Thomas

Tickets

 The train pulls out of Marseilles. After the conductor checks her ticket Bambi gathers her toiletries and heads to the washroom. It's occupied. She knocks on the door. Daniel opens it and lets her in. When the conductor knock on the door Bambi opens it and tells him he already checked her ticket. Once he passes down the aisle, Bambi tells Daniel that the berth above her's is unoccupied and that he should sneak in and use it. He does.

At first light, as the train pulls into Paris, Daniel tells Bambi he's going to leave now before the others awake, and asks her to grab his suitcase. He'll meet her outside the station. However Bambi forgets to get his suitcase. Daniel then heads back aboard the train. At the compartment he finds the dead body of Georgette laying in her bunk. Shocked, he grabs his suitcase, re-meets Bambi, but says nothing.

The body of  Georgette Thomas

When the authorities discover the body the police investigation begins starting with trying to track down all the sleeping compartment occupants.

The wonderfully detailed screenplay along with the nuanced performances of the large ensemble cast provides you with an intriguing look into the detailed investigations of a homicide bureau that has to not only investigate the original murder, but are also racing against time in Noirsville because the remaining occupants of the sleeping compartment start showing up dead 

Noirsville

All of the cast is exemplary, especially Yves Montand (The Wages Of Fear, Is Paris Burning?, Grand Prix, Z) who reminds me of a cross between Bogart and a "baby I don't care" Mitchum. Simone Signoret (Dédée d'Anvers) (Montand's wife at the time) is good as the actress past her prime. Signoret's real life daughter Catherine Allegret (from her marriage to director Yves Allegret) is impressive.

A French Noir masterpiece 10/10.