Emil E. Reinert’s Quai de Grenelle (US: Quay of Grenelle) tells a pitch-perfect noir tale — an innocent man hunted by the Paris police seeks shelter from underworld figures while awaiting his tragic fate — but in a style relatively light on noir atmospherics. It’s a film noir by all measures, including an exceedingly bleak final act, but it holds its punches stylistically. Projecting more naivete and calmness than the typical noir anti-hero, Henri Vidal plays young gadabout Jean-Louis Lavalade, whose favorite pastime is hunting snakes in the Forest of Fontainebleau outside Paris. When Lavalade confronts a street cop over a minor pedestrian infraction while walking with his girlfriend Simone Lamy (Françoise Arnoul), he ends up mistakenly associated with a recent burglary by the St. Charles Gang and labeled by the press a “monster” and “vampire” (“I forgot I was writing about a human being,” says one reporter later). Forced to go on the lam, Lavalade befriends a hooker named Mado (Maria Mauban) who offers him shelter and quickly falls in love (“You’re the only one who’s been nice to me,” he tells her), but Lavalade’s nerves and an accidental tragedy will set him running once again. (Notably, the female sex drive is precisely what ensures Lavalade’s downfall, especially in an earlier scene). The story contains few twists and little mystery, but it proceeds rapidly through a variety of settings, concluding with a bang in the forest.