Un témoin dans la ville

Un témoin dans la ville is a 1959 Franco-Italian crime thriller directed by Édouard Molinaro. The screenplay, credited to Molinaro together with Gérard Oury and Alain Poiré, is adapted from the novel of the same name by the French crime-writing duo Boileau-Narcejac. Star Lino Ventura this time plays not the pursuer but the pursued, falling victim at the end of a nocturnal manhunt through Paris.

Shot in black and white in the manner of a film noir, the picture merges its characters with the labyrinth of night-time streets, using unusual angles, strong light-and-shadow contrasts and neon signs. Its centrepiece is a radio-dispatched taxi network whose drivers unite to track the killer from their dispatch office. The 86-minute film also features Sandra Milo, Franco Fabrizi and Françoise Brion.