The previous poster is incorrect in stating that this was the first Maigret movie, they had in fact been appearing for more or less a decade; be that as it may I find a strong sense of irony in a film titled after a real street in Paris which is kick-started by the discovery of a body in that very same Rue Picpus. Should you find yourself in the vicinity - and it's near Nation if anybody asks you - and specifically outside the convent at number #36 (don't hold me to that, it's a couple of years since I was last there) between the hours of 2 - 4p.m Monday through Friday and ask nicely the concierge will hand you a key that fits the gate in the courtyard adjacent to her office. If you then stroll down the tree-lined allee you find inside the gate and go through a second gate on your right you will be in a small private cemetery, probably no more than 100 graves tops; above the last one on your right flies the Stars and Stripes for this is the last resting place of Lafayette, a well-liked aristocrat who survived the French Revolution and helped the Americans win their own for which a grateful new Nation awarded him a handsome cash sum and a few choice acres. Being an incurable Romantic, presumably a requirement for serving in bloody Revolutions he decided he would like to be buried in American soil so when he returned to La Belle France he took with him a large trunk full of the stuff and there he lies, in American soil in Paris, France. But that's not the irony I spoke of; just above eye-level in the wall adjacent to Lafayette's tomb is a plaque stating that a few metres on the other side of the wall lie 1,500 headless torsos that once held the bluest blood in France. Think about it for a moment; it's July, it's hot, and Madame Guillotine is working her socks off and that means STINK, Man. So, one fine night the guy that owned the estate on Rue Picpus woke up to find a hole in his wall and for several nights thereafter they kept bringing in these headless stiffs and throwing them into two pits in his yard. They don't put this in the Guide Books, but then they wouldn't, would they, nevertheless it's a fact and that's why I find it ironic that with 1,500 to choose from Maigret should confine himself to the odd two or three further up the street. That apart what can I tell you. It's a Maigret movie, it's Continental, it's Albert Prejean, who was never really comfortable with the role. It's entertaining. Go see.
Review of Picpus
