Quite possibly inspired by the prior year’s Mordets Melodi, a Danish noir in which a particular song accompanies a serial killer’s crimes, Christian Stengel’s Seul dans la nuit (US: Alone in the Night) stars a young, lean Bernard Blier (with a full head of hair) in a role tailormade for his unique screen persona: an earnest, young detective named Pascal who seems consistently yet quietly confused by humanity. Digging into his first major case, tyro Pascal investigates a serial killer who is targeting fans of popular singer Marny (Jacques Pills, once married to legendary songstress Edith Piaf) who strikes while Marny’s best-known song (also the film’s title) can be heard in the distance. While the alibi-lacking Marny himself is a suspect, Pascal also takes an interest in his jealous girlfriend, his facially disfigured manager Dalbret (Jean Davy), and the bohemian Toby (Louis Salou) who despises all artists and performers, among others. Sophie Desmarets plays Pascal’s girlfriend Thérèse, who will ultimately serve as bait to draw the killer to the police. Even though the violence tends to take place offscreen, Stengel and crew effectively create thick noir atmosphere (the lonely nocturnal streets swirling with fog, the cavernous theater lobby) and moments of dramatic heft often heightened by using slow dissolves for transitions. The most atmospheric setting, however, is a decrepit, abandoned theater, where Pascal and Thérèse encounter a bitter actor delivering a monologue by candlelight to an invisible audience and where the film’s gut-wrenching climax takes place.