"A film to be rediscovered, with its modern style of narration and its exceptional performances." (Telerama) The Döppelganger motif is explored in this little–known Grémillon drama, set in Toulon. The great Raimu stars as a mousy but respected shopowner who is, in fact, a front for a gang of burglars. When he kills an accomplice with a chisel belonging to his neighbor, a shoemaker (Pierre Blanchar), the neighbor is sent away to prison; while he does hard labor, his wife (Viviane Romance) becomes involved with the gang. In time, Raimu pays with his wife (Madeleine Renaud). As he had done with the melodrama, Grémillon adapts the crime genre to his own sense of atmosphere and psychology. Dudley Andrew includes L'Etrange M. Victor among "a series of truly wonderful films" with Lumière d'été and Le Ciel est à vous (not showing): "Spanning the period of French subjugation by the Nazis, these films capture the sensibility of the times with their wistful romanticism, the fatality of their conclusions, and their attention to social classes."