In Maigret Sets a Trap (1958), Jean Gabin played Commissioner Jules Maigret, Georges Simenon’s celebrated Paris detective, who sets a trap for a serial killer terrorising the women of Paris. Directed by Jean Delannoy, the film gave Gabin a role that fitted him perfectly: a patient, observant policeman who solves crimes by understanding people, not by chasing them.
Maigret is calm, methodical and humane, and Gabin plays him with the authority of a man who has seen everything and is surprised by nothing. The film was a great success, and Gabin returned to Maigret in further films, making the commissioner one of his most beloved later creations, a detective whose greatest weapon was his knowledge of ordinary human nature.