''Fear Over the City'' ( French: ''Peur sur la ville'') is a

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

French crime film directed by

Henri Verneuil Henri Verneuil (; born Ashot Malakian; 15 October 1920 – 11 January 2002) was a French-Armenian playwright and filmmaker, who made a successful career in France. He was nominated for Oscar and Palme d'Or awards, and won Locarno International ...

and starring

Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...

. It was the first time Belmondo played a police officer. It was released in the United States and the United Kingdom as ''The Night Caller''.

Plot

Policeman Jean Letellier is under pressure, because the infamous gangster Marcucci escaped from him publicly. Moreover, during the pursuit an innocent bystander was killed by a stray bullet. Letellier is investigated for having fired the deadly bullet. Before Letellier is cleared, a serial killer begins to murder young women, each time leaving a weird message at the site of crime. He calls himself "Minos", referring to the

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature ...

. The murderer always declares he had punished his victims for what he considers their impure life style. While Letellier still has no trace of Minos, he comes across Marcucci's current whereabouts. Just as before, Marcucci tries to escape in a spectacular manner when Letellier confronts him. But this time Marcucci dies in the course of action. Marcucci's death is no relief for Letellier who is now publicly accused of having neglected the Minos case in favour of settling his personal feud with his late archenemy. Minos keeps on murdering and leaving provoking hints until Letellier can identify him. The serial killer can only scarcely elude Letellier, who chases him over the roofs of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. His next coup is to take hostages in a skyscraper. Letellier decides he has had it and goes airborne. From a flying

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

he jumps through the window into the flat and puts Minos down.

Cast

as Jean Letellier * Charles Denner as Charles Moissac *

Giovanni Cianfriglia Giovanni Cianfriglia (born 5 April 1935) is an Italian film actor. He has appeared in more than 100 films since 1958. Born in Anzio, Cianfriglia debuted as the body double of Steve Reeves in ''Hercules'', then he started appearing, often unc ...

as Marcucci *

Adalberto Maria Merli Adalberto Maria Merli (born 14 January 1938) is an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Born in Rome, Merli is active on film and television and he has appeared in over 27 films since 1965. He had his breakout role in the 1968 RAI televis ...

as Minos *

Jean Martin Jean Martin (6 March 1922 – 2 February 2009Jean Martin
''The Guardian'', 12 February 2009

as Inspector Sabin *

Lea Massari Lea Massari, born Anna Maria Massetani (born 30 June 1933) is an actress and singer from Italy. Massari was born Anna Maria Massetani in Rome, but changed her name to Lea Massari when she was 22 after the death of her fiancé Leo. She studied a ...

as Norah Elmer *

Rosy Varte Rosy Varte (22 November 1923 – 14 January 2012) was a French actress of Armenian descent. She made more than 100 film and television appearances during her career. She starred in the 1972 film ''The Bar at the Crossing'', which was enter ...

as Germaine Doizon * as Hélène Grammont *

Jean-François Balmer Jean-François Balmer (born April 18, 1946 in Valangin) is a Swiss actor. He has worked extensively in French cinema, television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sou ...

as Julien Dallas *

Albert Delpy Albert Delpy (born 13 September 1941) is a Vietnamese-born French actor and writer. He has appeared in more than one hundred films since 1970. Personal life He is the father of Julie Delpy and has appeared as her on-screen father in '' 2 Days in ...

as Henri Vernellic

Reception

The film was the second most popular film at the French box office in 1975, after ''

The Towering Inferno ''The Towering Inferno'' is a 1974 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin and produced by Irwin Allen, featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels '' The Towe ...

''. It was Belmondo's most popular movie since '' Le Casse'' (1972). It was also popular in Italy and Germany. It was released in the USA and the UK as ''The Night Caller''. The ''New York Times'' said "it seems to be two completely different movies, neither of them up to much." The ''Los Angeles Times'' thought the action sequences "keep an otherwise routine film entertaining." ''Time Out'' said Belmondo is "piling stunt on daredevil stunt and risking his neck for a particularly silly story", and "desperately little of the film's energy" goes into the plot.

External links

* *
''Fear Over the City''
at Le Film Guide *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peur sur la ville 1975 films 1970s French-language films 1970s crime action films French crime action films Police detective films Films directed by Henri Verneuil Films scored by Ennio Morricone 1970s French films