Jean Poiret stars as Inspector Lavardin, an eccentric and lone wolf police investigator, who arrives in a small, provincial French town when a plumber is killed in a car accident that may have been a murder. The dead man was part of a land development group formed with a secretive doctor (Jean Topart) and a corrupt lawyer (Michel Bouquet), who are accomplices in a scheme to force a bitter, neurotic widow (longtime Chabrol collaborator and his ex-wife Stéphane Audran) out of her home. She fights back with the help of her son Louis (Lucas Belvaux), a mail carrier who steams open the mail of their tormenters and exacts revenge with minor acts of vandalism.
Lavardin doesn't actually make his entrance until we've witnessed forty minutes of scheming, cheating, and poisonous personalities in this quintessential rural hotbed of nastiness, a staple of murder mystery fiction. Louis is Lavardin's prime suspect, but when there's another fatal car wreck connected to the corrupt cabal, the case takes some new turns. The mystery unfolds in ways familiar to fans of the genre, with some satisfying twists that some viewers may guess before Lavardin.
Chabrol's interest is in the corrupt culture of the town's wealthy and powerful, who hide their sins under a veneer of respectability, and the hypocrisy of the widow who uses emotional blackmail to make her son a virtual servant to her. Lavardin himself is a curious fellow who bends protocol, breaks the law, beats suspects, and generally follows his instincts with a single-minded ferocity, all behind the easy-going demeanor of an elegant, silver-haired veteran cop whose cold, the enigmatic shadow of a smile is betrayed only by his piercing blue eyes.
It's based on a novel by Dominique Roulet, who collaborated with Chabrol on the screenplay and was followed by the big screen sequel Inspector Lavardin, also directed by Chabrol. The original French title was Poulet au vinaigre, which is a pun in the French language: poulet translates to chicken but is also slang for a cop. The American title essentially echoes the same pun for American audiences. The unrated film features brief nudity and sexuality and is in French with English subtitles.
It's part of the Arrow Blu-ray box set "Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol." Features commentary by Ben Sachs, a 1994 stage interview with Chabrol conducted by film historian Ian Christie at the BFI, a new video remembrance of Chabrol by Christie, archival select scene commentary by Chabrol, and a 1985 French TV program on the film featuring interviews with Chabrol, Poiret, and Audran. An optional purchase for classic film collections in public libraries.