Maurice Derville

The Dossiers of Inspector Lavardin is a French television series in four 90-minute episodes, created by Dominique Roulet and Claude Chabrol and broadcast between September 15, 1988 and February 1, 1990 on TF1. It follows the two films Chicken in Vinegar and Inspector Lavardin directed by Claude Chabrol and already featuring Jean Poiret in the role of Lavardin. This short series depicts the investigations of Inspector Lavardin, a tongue-in-cheek policeman known for his bad manners.

In France in 1946, the difficult return to civilian life of five deportees and prisoners of war after having lived through the hell of the Second World War.

Charles-Edmond, the eldest of the Larmentiel brothers, decides to return to La Rochelle, his hometown to die there. Forty years earlier he had been driven out by his father. Before passing away, the old eccentric announces that he has a hidden son, Émile, a fisherman to whom he wishes to bequeath his property. François, the younger brother, whom Charles-Edmond hates, is eyeing the inheritance to bail out the powerful family business, a veritable fishing trust, and will try to appropriate the affection and property of this inopportune heir. Émile, meanwhile, is too busy arguing with Fernande, a beugland singer, to suspect what awaits him...

A woman in Paris hires a taxi driver to locate her ex-lover, father to her newborn child, who left her without leaving an address.

A horrific and, on the face of it, incomprehensible murder has just been committed on the unsympathetic person of a loan shark. The victim's body is found lifeless, but the circumstances of his death are far from clear. For want of anything better to go on, the police immediately suspect a penniless gentleman who had the bad idea and misfortune to be present at the time of the crime. The police don't take the time to look for other possible suspects, and are not at the end of their surprises. A dark story seems to lie behind this imbroglio of incoherent facts.

A businessman who lives from blackmailing begins to be blackmailed by his own wife who hates him.

The wife of gunsmith Gaston Sarazin cheats on him with his salesman. The husband, informed, wants revenge. The culprits try to divert suspicion on the dashing Stanislas. The husband forces the straw lover to live with him. Stanislas then brings the spouses together and makes the business of the gunsmith prosper.

Henri Chatelard is well into his forties, owns a restaurant and a cinema in the city, and appreciates women. When he meets Marie, an 18-ish strong-head who just lost her father in a small fishing village, it is not clear who is the hunter and who is the prey.

Loiseau the pharmacist mistakenly mixes potassium cyanide into a batch of cough syrup and sells five bottles. With horror he discovers his mistake and sets out to find the buyers. He finds only four. The fifth, not a regular customer, comes back to the pharmacy...

A boudoir adventure during which the seductive Madame Jolivet, shocked by the behavior of her husband who appears with an actress, calls on the services of a young man, known as "the man of joy".

While celebrating his birthday, police inspector Basquier recalls two of his most celebrated cases. The first involves duplicitous moneylender Olga. The second concerns the brutal broad daylight murder of innocent young Yvonne.

Naive and good-hearted Léon Ménard arrives in Paris, determined to find work in the capital. In a café, he meets Bob, a seedy guy, who helps him to get a job. On cloud nine, the ingenuous young man, does is unaware of how Bob manipulates him. Having become the night concierge of a hotel, the thankful Léon lets Bob and his accomplices get into the pace. Jewels are stolen as a result.When he is accused, Leon refuses to incriminate his "friend". Fortunately, Charlotte, Léon's fiancé, manages to find evidence of Bob's guilt and thanks to a premium paid by the diamond dealer the two lovebirds can buy a grocer's shop and tie the knot.

A traveller is stuck in an unknown town because his connecting train will only arrive in six hours. He decides to kill time by taking a stroll. He is not prepared to get confused with somebody else. In fact the citizens are eagerly awaiting the visit of a famous man and the clueless traveller is his doppelgänger. Soon he experiences what that means.

Emile is a French film producer at the beginning of the century. One of his friends leaves his daughter Lucette in his house, when he is starting a tour through France. Emile falls in love with her. Problems starts when his younger friend Jacques come back from military service and after complaining his misfortune with women, follows Emile's advice in starting affairs with women and he meets Lucette.

Gaston Bernod is a Parisian bus driver. Honest, upright and hard-working, he is held in high esteem by his superiors. Gaston has always pampered "his" bus, going as far as to equip it with a fuel-saving device of his invention. Very close to his vehicle, he may have somewhat neglected his wife Paulette, who lets herself got round by the smooth words of Pierrot. The gigolo has indeed managed to persuade her to follow him to the Mont Saint-Michel, "a wonderful nest for their burgeoning love" as he says. The trouble is that Gaston, while driving his dear 84, catches sight of the car, and suddenly aware of his misfortune, sees red. He immediately sets off in pursuit of the culprits, involving his load of helpless passengers in the chase.

The life of a weak-willed man is thrust into a downward spiral by the scheming of his manipulative girlfriend and her mother.

Director Jean Delannoy's immediate followup to his brilliant Les Jeux sont Faits was the more conventional Aux Yeux du Souvenir (aka Souvenir and To the Eyes of Memory). The film is based on a true story, wherein an France airliner managed to survive a journey from Rio De Janeiro to Dakar with two of its engines incapacitated. To this already intensely dramatic situation has been added a romantic subplot involving Claire Magny (Michele Morgan) and Jacques Forester (Jean Marais). The love story adds very little to the film; fortunately, neither does it detract from the film's overall quality. As was the case with many French productions of the 1940s, Aux Yeux du Souvenir benefits immeasurably from the Wagnerian musical score by Georges Auric.

Summoned by his mother to plead, a very young lawyer has a trio of pathetic criminals acquitted. The daughter of one of them reveals to the lawyer that the three accomplices hoped to find food and board in prison. For the beautiful eyes of the young girl, Master of La Bastide attaches the three rogues to his service. Disasters, confusion, clumsiness follow one another until the planned wedding.

Tongues start to wag after a famous Parisian music hall dancer is rushed to hospital after being found poisoned by arsenic at the Concert Mayol.