Clouzot is France's Hitchcock, the master of suspense whose tales shun gothic nostalgia for a disturbingly contemporary ambience. If in comparison with Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear, Quai des Orfevres is not his best known film in the U.S., it is considered by many to be his masterpiece and won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. Steeped in atmosphere-the smokey improbity of the Parisian cabarets, on the one hand, and the darkly cynical police milieu on the other-it tells of an ambitious chanteuse (Suzy Delair) who thinks she has killed a lecherous admirer but says nothing as her devoted husband (Bernard Blier) takes the rap. The cop on the case is the incomparable Louis Jouvet, who, as actor and detective, operates by nuance alone. Clouzot likewise has stripped the story of its operatic qualities, leaving a chilling exposé of a character and her times based on bold, shocking simplicity.