The sinister medical student Radek (played by Valéry Inkijinoff), who is suspected by Maigret (played by Harry Baur) of having murdered a wealthy American woman, taunts Maigret by mentioning the famous real-life murder of Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor. Radek claims that the police were aware of the identity of Taylor's killer, but could not make an arrest, because the suspect had committed the "perfect crime." Although many books and works of entertainment have speculated on the case, the Taylor murder has never been solved.
This is the third film to have been adapted from a novel by Georges Simenon featuring his famous fictional detective, Jules Maigret. The first-ever Maigret film was Night at the Crossroads (1932), directed by Jean Renoir, starring his older brother Pierre Renoir as Maigret. The second was Le chien jaune (1932), starring as Maigret the little-known Abel Tarride and directed by his son, Jean Tarride. All three films were adapted from novels first published in 1931, the year Simenon introduced the Maigret character.
Underwent a 4K restoration in 2020 from nitrate image and sound negatives by the Hiventy laboratory on behalf of TF1 Studio with support from the CNC.