Mr. Balboss dreamed of being a poet but he is a police commissioner. He is a good husband, a good father. He is also this scoundrel who uses all the means that the laws . His taste for the absolute has been disappointed: he needs a witness. He sets his sights on a young homeless man. He traps him, locks him up and then frees him. He forces him to be the spectator of his "acts". He will apprentice the young man. The commissioner will reveal all the tricks of the trade to him. The young man then seeks to know the true nature of the commissioner and to understand the reasons that push him to commit gratuitous and unpunished crime!
Jean Marboeuf's closest relative,in the French cinema is Jean-Pierre Mocky; both displays an. Anarchic side a rather couldn't care less directing , but Mocky's sense of black humor lacks here .
The subject of the man who lives a double life has already been treated ,and many times, in the American film noir and in France, notably Decoin's "le bienfaiteur" (1942) starring Raimu .Here the screenplay is more a succession of sketches in which talented Galabru munches ginger bread or a ham sandwich and which does not add up to something really consistent ; the scene when the superintendent trains his protégé may be intriguing but an absurd editing in the finale is off-putting.
