SIMENON SIMENON. INSPECTOR UNLUCKY GETS LUCKY

Lognon is gunned down in “Maigret and the Ghost” and emerges as a hero 

SIMENON SIMENON. L’INSPECTEUR MALCHANCEUX DEVIENT CHANCEUX 

Lognon est abattu dans “Maigret et le fantôme” et il émerge comme un héros 

SIMENON SIMENON. L'ISPETTORE SFORTUMATO DIVENTA FORTUNATO

Lognon è ucciso in "Maigret e il fantasma" e viene considerato un eroe

This new Penguin ‘Maigret’ presents Inspector Lognon at death’s door. “Seriously wounded” in a drive-by shooting, he lies in surgery with “little chance of living.”

A detective very familiar to Maigret fans, Lognon is generally recognized as “obstinate” and “scrupulous” like “a hunting dog that, once on a trail, never let go.” He has earned two nicknames: “Inspector Surly” applied by many of his associates because of his “grouchy manner” and “Inspector Unlucky” applied by Maigret himself because “poor Lognon had a knack for drawing every misfortune upon himself.” Nevertheless, having often positively “underlined the man’s merits in his official reports,” the Chief Inspector is deeply affected by this crisis. “Because it was about Lognon,” the case “took on a less professional character.” Thus, Maigret embarks on an exhaustive effort to collar the culprits.

At the same time, sympathetic Madame Maigret becomes deeply involved with Lognon’s wife and discovers Solange not only hypochondriacally obliged her husband into “an impossible existence” caring for her, but also unfairly blamed Maigret for “persecuting” him and blocking his ascension up the police ladder.

While Lognon fights for his life in the hospital, Maigret ferrets out what he had been doing before getting shot: apparently, he was “frequenting a damsel,” a pretty young maiden in her upstairs apartment. However, figuring the man was no “Don Juan,” Maigret finds that he had actually been there on stakeout “for at least 15 days” without telling anyone. The girl vanished right after the shooting, but with some great detective work, the Chief Inspector eventually traces her. Having fled out of fear for her life, she informs Maigret that Lognon “told me he had never had any luck, but if I helped him, everything was going to change because he was on a very big case.” Maigret agrees: “As

he told you, he doesn’t have any luck… Either someone cuts the grass out from under his feet or he gets taken out as he’s about to carry the day.” Maigret deduces that the detective had been spying on some suspicious activity across the street until the criminals spotted him smoking cigarettes at her window and brutally shot him down. Determined to identify the attackers of “a colleague gunned down,” Maigret accelerates his investigative efforts. “Wishing all the offices were open day and night,” he shifts “the machine” into high gear. “Above all, hurry up… Get rolling, full speed ahead.” The big man himself is too excited to even eat! Count on this “feverish” Maigret to pull the pieces of the puzzle together, make the arrests, and give the credit to the, at last, recovering victim.

A month later, Lognon leaves the hospital, “more thin than ever, but with a twinkle in his eye” because he “was somewhat of a hero from here on. What’s more, it wasn’t Maigret’s photograph, but his, that the newspapers published.” Ironically enough, during his prolonged surveillance, Lognon had “bragged” to Solange “the papers would soon be publishing his picture on the front page.” He goes off to the country for two months to recuperate, but as Madame Maigret predicted, the convalescing man spends the entire time caring for his wife, who had “no serious illness” at all. 

  

David P Simmons 

SIMENON SIMENON. LA GARDE-ROBE DE MAIGRET

L'habillement de Maigret, au cinéma et à la télévision 

SIMENON SIMENON. IL GUARDAROBA DI MAIGRET 

L'abbigliamento di Maigret, al cinema e in televisione 

SIMENON SIMENON. MAIGRET'S WARDROBE 

Maigret's clothing in the movies and on television 

• Chemise et bretelles

Le complet nécessite, pour se conformer à une certaine élégance, d'être porté sur une chemise blanche, ou du moins très claire. Dans la saga, cette chemise est surtout mentionnée lorsqu'on voit, dans de nombreuses scènes, Maigret qui a tombé la veste et se trouve «en manches de chemise», ce qui laisse apparaître les bretelles qui tiennent son pantalon. 

• Camicia e bretelle

Per rispettare una certa eleganza, bisogna che il vestito sia indossato sopra una camicia bianca, o almeno di colore molto chiaro. Nella serie questa camicia è soprattutto mostrata quando si vede, in molte scene, Maigret lasciare cadere la giacca ed finisce «in maniche di camicia», cosa che rivela le bretelle che tengono su i suoi pantaloni. 

• Shirt and suspenders 

To comply with certain elegance, the suit requires to be worn over a white or very light-coloured shirt. In the saga this shirt is mainly mentioned when we see, in numerous scenes, Maigret having dropped his jacket and being "in shirtsleeves", which lets appear the suspenders that hold his trousers.  

Cette image du commissaire sans veston apparaît relativement peu dans les adaptations: quasiment jamais dans les films (nous n'en n'avons trouvé qu'une seule scène dans Maigret tend un piège avec Gabin), et un peu plus souvent dans les séries télévisées. 

Questa immagine del commissario senza giacca appare piuttosto raramente negli adattamenti: quasi mai nei film (abbiamo trovato una singola scena ne Maigret tend un piège con Gabin), et un po 'più spesso nelle serie televisive. 

This picture of the Chief Inspector without a jacket appears rather rarely in adaptations: almost never in the movies (we've found but one scene in Maigret tend un piège with Gabin), and a little more often in the TV series. 

Dans ces scènes, on voit aussi les acteurs porter des bretelles, sauf Rupert Davies, qui n'en porte jamais, et Bruno Crémer, qui en principe n'en porte pas non plus !  

In queste scene si vedono anche alcuni attori indossare bretelle, tranne Rupert Davies che non ne indossa mai e Bruno Crémer, che in linea di principio, non ne indossa neanche! 

In those scenes we can also see actors wearing suspenders, except for Rupert Davies, who never wears them, and Bruno Crémer, who in principle doesn't wear them either!

  

••• C'est surtout dans la série avec Jean Richard qu'on voit souvent Maigret en manches de chemise et en bretelles, en particulier dans les scènes où il est en train de se raser. 

••• E' soprattutto nella serie con Jean Richard che si vede Maigret in maniche di camicia e con le bretelle, in particolare nelle scene dove si sta radendo. 

••• It's above all in the series with Jean Richard that we can often see Maigret in shirtsleeves and wearing suspenders, particularly in the scenes where he is shaving. 

Murielle Wenger