Meurtre A Montmartre (aka Reproduction Interdite) (1957)

An art dealer (Paul Frankeur) has a wife (Jacqueline Noelle) with expensive tastes. When the opportunity arrives to make money by forging a fake Gauguin, he takes it. But when the forger (Giani Esposito) gets a conscience and his drinking threatens to expose them, the art dealer and his accomplice (Michel Auclair) know they will have to silence him. Based on the novel by Michel Lenoir and directed by Gilles Grangier (LE ROUGE EST MIS). A very good example of French film noir. Frankeur's protagonist is essentially a decent man that crosses a line that he would never have crossed if it hadn't been for a wrong done to him. Once in, he goes deeper into crime until murder seems the only out. The film's only downside is a godawful score by Jean Yatove that is so obvious as to be almost laughable. Noir fans should check this one out. With Annie Girardot and Marcel Bozzuffi.