The Inquisitor + Deadly Circuit Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Inquisitor + Deadly Circuit Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 19, 2025

Note: Radiance is releasing a double feature of two Claude Miller films, The Inquisitor and Deadly Circuit. They are offering the first film in either 4K UHD or 1080 (the 4K UHD release includes a 1080 disc). Deadly Circuit is presented in 1080 on both releases.

A lot of thrillers, especially murder mysteries, can have key, even climactic, scenes take place in a police interrogation room. In fact, it's almost de rigeur in some UK police procedural television series in particular to have long, involved scenes involving police interviews, and in at least a couple of popular shows like Vera, the "Moishe the Explainer" vignette in any given episode may in fact take place in just such an environment. The Inquisitor was released in France as Garde à Vue, which indicates being in police custody, which may actually give a more or less complete summary of at least the general context of this film. And with regard to the forgoing mention of scenes taking place involving police interrogations, that's pretty much the "whole story" in the film as well, though it may be salient to note the film was evidently also released under the Anglicized title The Grilling, which may offer more of an insight into the emotional ambience of everything.

A cat and mouse game between Inspector Antoine Gallien (Lino Ventura) and a patrician attorney named Jérôme Martinaud ( Michel Serrault) is introduced almost immediately as a rain soaked New Year's Eve is shown in some unnamed French village. While the complete context takes a while to unfold, it soon enough becomes apparent that Gallien and his kind of dunderheaded assistant Marcel Belmont (Guy Marchand) suspect Martinaud for the horrifying rape and murder of two young girls, even though Martinaud actually (supposedly?) discovered one of the victims and alerted the police. If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, it may be because John Wainwright's source novel Brainwashed was later also the inspiration for Under Suspicion, the 2000 film starring Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman.

One way or the other, the bulk of this film is simply the interrogation of Martinaud by Gallien (with a little help from Belmont). That may arguably redound both to the benefit and detriment of the film. On the plus side, the back and forth between these two perceived nemeses is fascinating and often fraught with almost Freudian levels of psychological intrigue. There's also an undeniably claustrophobic mood that sets in, not just due to the limited confines of where the questioning is taking place, but by the relentless downpour going on outside, which is frequently reflected through rain soaked windows. On the minus side, despite Miller's rather smart use of mise-en-scène and a surprisingly mobile camera despite the cloistered surrounding, the whole narrative is unavoidably static.

As Martinaud's insistence that he had nothing to do with either the rapes or the murders seems to be slowly dissolving under the relentless questioning from Gallien, the sudden arrival of Martinaud's wife Chantal (Romy Schneider in what amounts to a glorified cameo) suddenly makes things completely perilous for the attorney, at which point a series of at least somewhat unexpected events occur, leaving the denouement a veritable emotional train wreck for Martinaud. It's interesting to note that both the source novel and this version have a decidedly downbeat revelation about a major character, something that is at least elided if not completely forsaken in the American update.

Our Deadly Circuit Blu-ray review offers information about the second feature included in this set.

The Inquisitor + Deadly Circuit Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Inquisitor is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Radiance Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. Radiance sent check discs for the purposes of this review and so I'm not privy to any verbiage contained in an insert booklet, and their website frankly doesn't even offer much information, but there is a quick prefatory text card before the feature indicating this is an at least relatively recent 4K restoration off of the original camera negative. This is another shot on film entry that I suspect some may prefer watching in 1080 even though there's a 4K UHD version available, as the increased resolution of the 4K format can make the extremely heavy grain field almost appear swampy at times, especially in some of the dimly lit police office material. That tendency is probably a bit more subliminal in 1080, though that is not to suggest that grain is any less thick. Grain tends to resolve significantly more tightly (or at least appear to do so) in some of the cutaway scenes, like some quick interstitials at the beach and a few other moments. Still, even with at times very heavy grain, fine detail can be quite commendable in things like the herringbone pattern on Gallien's suit jacket. The bulk of the film, especially the police office scenes, are intentionally drab and maybe even dowdy looking, but there are more noticeably vivid pops of color in some of the "outside" material, including a very late vignette featuring an anecdote told by Chantal, which is bathed in an almost "golden hour" buttery yellow which is quite evocative.

The Inquisitor + Deadly Circuit Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Inquisitor features LPCM Mono audio in the original French, but the track on both the 4K disc and the 1080 disc exhibits a really strange anomaly I have personally never encountered before where the subwoofer is engaged (!) and there's an intermittent low frequency hum or pulse that occasionally thrums through the track. Otherwise, the track is perfectly fine, so if you have the ability to deactivate your subwoofer or listen in "true mono", this won't be an issue. Georges Delerue contributes an enjoyable score which sounds fine, and ambient environmental sounds like the nonstop rain are also rendered without any issues. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Note: I'll mention only in passing that this is now the second Radiance disc with some kind of authoring issue. I was an early "warning voice" about problems with Radiance's The Tale of Oiwa's Ghost, though I was originally kind of told to go away and stop bothering people by Radiance's US distributor as they were unable to reproduce the problem. In the meantime, issues with that disc have become some widely reported that Radiance issued a replacement, and I suspect the same may end up happening here.

The Inquisitor + Deadly Circuit Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Success Story - The Making of The Inquisitor (HD; 34:28) is an archival documentary made for TF1 Video in 2016. Subtitled in English.


• Claude Miller and Michel Audiard (HD; 9:51) is an archival discussion produced for Belgian television in 1981. Subtitled in English.


• Patrice Leconte (HD; 5:39) is a companion piece to Success Story, offering the filmmaker in 2016 in a piece done for TF1 Video. Subtitled in English.


• Reverse Shot on Crime Cinema (HD*; 52:01) is a panel discussion first presented on French television in 1981. Subtitled in English.


• Trailer (HD; 2:30)

*720

Supplements for Deadly Circuit are listed in our Deadly Circuit Blu-ray review.

The Inquisitor + Deadly Circuit Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is a fascinating double feature from Radiance, and while the films share a number of tethers (including featured actors), they're also different enough to provide radically variant viewing experiences. Technical merits on both are generally solid, though audio on The Inquisitor has some weird issues and I suspect some may end up preferring the 1080 presentation of that film to the 4K UHD one. Supplements accompanying both films are excellent. Recommended.