Watch The Man on the Eiffel Tower For Free

Please don't spend money on this.

Beautiful, moving film.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This from the trivia page of "The Man on the Eiffel Tower". Irwin Allen (the original director) was very dissatisfied with the final results. After its initial run, he bought the film rights back from RKO and kept the prints out of circulation for a long time. Many believed that the film was lost, even Meredith. However, it has been released on VHS and DVD and can be relatively easily found at rental stores.Too bad it was found. It would have been better as a "lost masterpiece". The copy that I watched was so badly faded that it was totally shades of orange. Distracting but not the worst flaws in the film. Maigret is not my favorite detective but Laughton as Maigret ? Really ? He's supposed to be FRENCH !Meredith needs to tie his glasses on somehow. He is always losing them. He also needs to stay away from directing. Not his best skill. Then there is the plot, perhaps clearer in the book, I dunno, but here ? So mixed up that it's impossible to find, much less follow. (Spoilers on ? Yes. OK) How does one "trace" a poor man's glasses to him ? WHY chase a man up the Eiffel Tower by way of girders and elevator. Stand at the base and wait for him to come down. CRIPES !

"The Man on the Eiffel Tower" is in the public domain. Because of this, the film is owned by no one and it's hardly likely anyone would ever think of restoring it. It's a shame, as the color print is a mess--so faded it almost looks like it was filmed in sepia!This film is a strange murder mystery that is investigated by the famed French detective, Inspector Maigret (Charles Laughton). It's an odd one. On one hand, they've caught a guy who was clearly in the house around the time of the murder (Burgess Meredith). However, he seems an unlikely man to have butchered the two women in the home. Instead, it is possible that the rich lady's heir might have had something to do with it. Additionally, a really loopy guy (Franchot Tone) sure acts guilty--but they have nothing on him. What's next? See the film...or don't bother.The reason I wanted to watch the film is that I am currently in Paris and just last night went on the Eiffel Tower--so it sure seemed like an opportune moment. However, in addition to a dirty print, the film's problems often overshadowed the good. As for the good, the performance by Laughton was nice and seeing the actual streets of Paris was very nice. But, on the other hand, Tone's performance was so ridiculously over the top that it looked almost like it was meant as a comedy---but it wasn't. Plus, the finale on the Eiffel Tower SHOULD have been better but seeing Tone climb the tower faster than any marathon runner was utterly ridiculous! All in all, a film that isn't bad...it just isn't very good either.

It's almost like someone was channeling the same year's The Third Man, except there must have been a lot of static on the line. Critics are right—the story line is darn near incoherent. See if you can follow who does what and why. The thread is about as choppy as a sausage string. The best parts are the extended glimpses of Paris we get as the characters race across the landscape usually for unfathomable reasons. I'm just sorry the color from Ansco on my DVD has bled, particularly the reds. Still, there are some really majestic shots of the tower in bright sunlight.What the movie does have is some really quirky acting, a surprise or two, and a rather humorous undercurrent. Meredith made a career out of eccentric roles. Here his jack-of-all-trades has coke bottle glasses, a mop of red hair, and a ton of agility. And, of course, there's the rotund Laughton, suggesting that the Paris police have fairly loose fitness standards. I'm just sorry we don't see more of Patricia Roc (Mrs. Kirby), the movie's one charming character. Just why Mr. Kirby (Robert Hutton) would jilt her for the wooden blonde Edna (Jean Wallace) is perhaps the movie's biggest mystery. And poor Belita, she's got featured billing and maybe three lines in the whole 90 minutes. Anyway, there may be parallels with the Welles classic, but this one amounts to a poorly narrated disappointment, despite a nail-biting climax.

Of course, Franchot Tone's character Johann Radek is a megalomaniac. How else do you explain his hanging around with Inspector Maigret (Charles Laughton) for the length of the film after he kills a wealthy American woman and then attempts to frame a street peddler (Burgess Meredith) for the crime. I didn't need this story to end to realize it wasn't making any sense. Riddle me this - why would Radek give the Inspector a hundred thousand francs? What was the point of that? Why did Huertin (Meredith) have to break a bottle over the head of Maigret's assistant, wasn't that just a bit of overkill? There was a scene where Radek entertains Maigret with his theory that a brave man would have the courage to commit suicide from a height atop the Eiffel Tower. Well there you have the setup for a melodramatic finale, but when push comes to shove, even that plot element fizzles. And where did Huertin summon up the courage to climb the Tower himself? He couldn't get out of his own way the entire picture and here he's scampering up there behind Radek, but to do what? What do you suppose he would have done if he had caught up with him?By the reaction of most other reviewers on this board I see I'm not alone. This might have had the seed of a good idea with it's early premise of a large inheritance intriguing enough to hatch a murder plot. But it just gets frittered away with the crime investigation led by Laughton's character. Even he seemed somewhat disappointing considering some of the more flamboyant roles I've seen him in. Maybe if this was a pirate movie.One interesting thing though. I had to wonder if Rod Serling might have seen this film at some time before coming up with his Twilight Zone story - 'Time Enough at Last'. It too features Burgess Meredith in the lead role as a bank employee who's rendered helpless at the end of the world by an unfortunate accident. There's no way to forget that ending once you've seen it, and you'll recognize it here as soon as it happens.