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2011-12-07

The Hatter's Ghost

The Hatter's Ghost
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Claude Chabrol
Screenplay by	Claude Chabrol
Based on	Le Petit Tailleur et le Chapelier by Georges Simenon
Starring	Michel Serrault Charles Aznavour Monique Chaumette
Music by	Matthieu Chabrol
Cinematography	Jean Rabier
Editing by	Monique Fardoulis
Studio	Philippe Grumbach Productions S.F.P.C. Films A2
Release date(s)	25 May 1982
Running time	120 min.
Country	France
Language	French

The Hatter's Ghost (French: "Les Fantômes du chapelier") is a 1982 film directed by Claude Chabrol. It is based on the 1947 novel Le Petit Tailleur et le Chapelier by Georges Simenon. The film takes place in Brittany and was shot in the towns of Concarneau and Quimper.

Plot

A hatter in a provincial town (Michel Serrault) leads the life of a respectable citizen but is in fact a serial murderer. The only person to suspect this is his neighbour the tailor (Charles Aznavour). After the hatter kills his own wife, he then kills six of her friends and prepares to murder a seventh when the intended victim dies naturally. As a substitute, he murders his favorite prostitute, which leads the police to him.

Principal cast

Critical reception

TV Guide rated the film with 2 1/2 out of 5 stars and commented:

“

Another Claude Chabrol film that neither fails nor lives up to his previous successes (LES BICHES, among others). Again he pays homage to Hitchcock with a psychopath, Michel Serrault, who murders his wife, then kills six of her elderly friends.

”

From Time Out London:

“

The hatter (Serrault) is a mass strangler who allows his secret to be discovered by hangdog Cachoudas (Aznavour), the tubercular Armenian tailor opposite. The ensuing relationship seems unbelievably reckless, even with a mad hatter involved, and manifestly it's the Hitchcocko-Jesuitical theology about shared guilt which animates the picture... Chabrol locates his adaptation in an off-kilter time zone - little bit '30s, little bit '50s - that some may find the most intriguing aspect of the movie.

”