In Édouard Molinaro’s adaptation of Vertigo author Pierre Boileau’s lesser known novel, Un Témoin Dans La Ville (US: Witness in the City), tough guy Lino Ventura plays Ancellin, a man avenging the murder of his wife by industrialist Pierre Verdier (Jacques Berthier) after Pierre is acquitted of all charges. The thrilling first act depicts Ancellin’s methodical set-up and intricately planned murder in Pierre’s darkened mansion, but Pierre’s death is only the beginning: a taxicab driver named Lambert (Franco Fabrizi) bumps into Ancellin during his escape and gets a good look at him. Of course, Lambert must now be eliminated, which shifts the action to him, his taxi driver pals, and the dispatcher Liliane (Sandra Milo) who is also Lambert’s girlfriend. Jump cuts, close-ups, distorted focus, and rapid pans are just some of the techniques Molinaro utilizes to sustain tension and excitement throughout. In addition to frenetic car chases and police dragnets, Molinaro and acclaimed cinematographer Henri Decaë create visually masterful scenes, one after another, like when the nervous Ancellin rides secretly in Lambert’s back seat, his face covered with shadow and sweat as we wait for Lambert to discover him, or the final hunt through some kind of eerie raptor zoo abandoned at night to the screams and caws of birds of prey. The strumming jazz score, so popular in French crime films by this time, accompanies Ancellin on much of his expedition, imbuing this desperate, hapless killer with even more pathos.