Maigret Et L'Affaire Saint Fiacre (1959)

A police inspector (Jean Gabin) returns to his countryside hometown when an old friend, the Countess of Saint Fiacre (Valentine Tessier), receives an an anonymous note predicting her death. The prediction comes true when she suddenly dies of a heart attack. But the inspector believes that someone intentionally caused that heart attack so in his view, it's murder! Based on the novel by Georges Simenon and directed by Jean Delannoy. This is an unusual and clever murder mystery in that a person dies of natural causes, if one can call a heart attack natural, rather than being poisoned, shot or stabbed. There are a multitude of suspects, none of them particularly likable and in a sense, they are all guilty of driving her to her death. Like a good Agatha Christie mystery, all the suspects are rounded up for dinner and the "killer" is exposed. Since Gabin's inspector had a close relationship with the victim, it's personal and because of that, Gabin gets an opportunity to show a wider range of emotions than a Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple would show. A must for murder mystery fans. With Michel Auclair, Paul Frankeur, Camille Guerini, Michel Vitold and Serge Rousseau.