The Man On The Eiffel Tower (1949)

A brilliant but mentally unbalanced medical student (Franchot Tone) is the brains behind the murder of an elderly and wealthy woman and her maid. When an innocent man (Burgess Meredith) is arrested for the murder, Tone taunts and teases the police inspector (Charles Laughton) in charge of the case by practically confessing to the murder fully aware that they have no evidence to arrest him. Based on the novel A MAN'S HEAD by Belgian mystery writer Georges Simenon, this was the feature film directorial debut of Burgess Meredith. The plot is rather convoluted and often doesn't make much logical sense but the cat and mouse relationship between Laughton and Tone (although a bit long in the tooth to play a student) forms the backbone of the film and it's strong enough to carry the film through to its well executed finale, a chase atop the Eiffel Tower. Filmed in Paris, Meredith and his cinematographer Stanley Cortez (NIGHT OF THE HUNTER) make excellent use of the Paris locations. Unfortunately, it was filmed in the dreaded Ansco color process and the film has fallen into the public domain and the two remaining 35 millimeter prints have faded color and are badly scratched. I watched the UCLA "restored" print and while it's the best available print to date, it's still in mediocre shape. With Jean Wallace (THE BIG COMBO), Patricia Roc, Robert Hutton, Belita and Wilfrid Hyde White.