CAT AND MOUSE Movie Review

Le Chat et la Souris

When a woman's rich, unfaithful husband turns up dead, the hard-boiled and exceedingly unorthodox Inspector Lechat (get it?) is determined to track down his prey. Claude Lelouch's lighthearted, picturesque policier is more enjoyable than it has a right to be, but just give in and enjoy the vivid Parisian scenery, not to mention the all-in-fun scenery-chewing from veterans Serge Reggiani, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Michèle Morgan, and Philippe Léotard. Cat and Mouse was a hit in France in 1975, but it only found release in the U.S. three years later thanks to the unexpected stateside success of Lelouch's 1978 comedy Robert et Robert. For those of us who tended to dismiss Lelouch in the 1970s for seeming out of touch with serious themes and the world's social turmoil, it just might be time to reassess some of his breezy and energetic genre entertainments such as the painlessly pleasurable Cat and Mouse.

NEXT STOP … A Man and a Woman, The Crook, And Now My Love

1978 (PG) 107m/C FR Michele Morgan, Serge Reggiani, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Philippe Labro, Philippe Leotard, Valerie Lagrange, Michel Perelon, Christine Laurent; D: Claude Lelouch; W: Claude Lelouch; C: Andre Perlstein; M: Francis Lai. VHS COL