Movie review - "Fear Over the City" (1975) **1/2

Like British film stars had to play war heroes in the 50s, French film stars had to play cops in the 70s. Here Jean Paul Belmondo is a tough chain smoking detective investigating a serial killer. It's fun to see Belmondo and partner Charles Denner (you might recognise him from The Man Who Had Power Over Women) constantly smoking and looking world weary; both are definitely well cast and it's an ideal star vehicle for Belmondo. It was co-written and directed by Henri Verneuil, a man with a number of strong tough guy feature credits (eg The Sicilian Clan).

The film suffers from being about serial killers - not super common in 1975, that subject has become so well covered a lot of this feels familiar. It plays like an episode of a TV show, only in French, with Belmondo, and an impressively staged chase sequence in the middle where Belmondo goes after a baddie. (You think it's going to be a small chase but it turns out to be a long one, rather like The French Connection. And the baddie isn't the killer he's someone else.)

The opening sequence consists of a lone woman being taunted by a serial killer over the phone - rather like the opening of Scream, only she throws herself impulsively off a balcony rather than being legitimately murdered. But murder fans don't worry - the killer still knocks off some women in dutifully unpleasant scenes. The killer (Adalberto Maria Merli) has a neat visual "look" - a bug eye.  He kills because he doesn't like the morals of certain women, rather like the killer in Frenzy. He sends lots of letters and phone calls to the police and even visits them - so it's not that hard for them to figure out who did it, you would think, but Belmondo doesnt until the killer throws a grenade into a porno theatre and holds a porno actress and her friendsy (!) hostage. Belmondo isn't much of a detective - even at the end he admits he's more muscle than brain.

There's a subplot about a gangster who is pursued by Belmondo and lots of scenes in apartments. Various psychiatrists at the end get involved to have a chat.

This film feels like a bunch of "bits"thrown together - a serial killer, a robber, an action sequence. It was a big hit and Belmondo seems to be having fun.