The hustle and bustle of Christmastime fade to silence just in time for ex-convict Robert Herbin (Robert Hossein) to descend into an overnight maze of deceit in Marcel Bluwal’s oneiric Le monte-charge (US: Paris Pick-Up). Dining alone in a restaurant, Robert makes eye contact with Marthe Dravet (Lea Dassari) and her little girl at the next table; the mutual physical attraction is instant, so after dinner Robert and Marthe stroll around town, take in a movie, and go back to Marthe’s apartment where a dead man lies on the sofa. The man is (was) Marthe’s husband, and, through the course of the night, the body will disappear and reappear as a second man is roped in to the mystery of Marthe. Briskly paced with plenty of surprises, Paris Pick-Up is one of a populnar breed of noir that takes place entirely in one night (other gems in this vein include Two Men in Manhattan, 1959; Murder Without Crime, 1950; and Deadline at Dawn, 1946), the compressed time frame adding urgency even — or especially — while the city sleeps. With so much dark to play with, Bac’s cinematography sweeps through the neighborhood, leaving behind a shimmering noir atmosphere, especially inside Marthe’s empty, industrial-style apartment building in which Robert becomes trapped as part of the film’s most riveting and visually hypnotic sequence.