Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot the film stars Suzy Delair as Jenny Lamour, Bernard Blier as Maurice Martineau, Louis Jouvet as Inspector Antoine and Simone Renant as Dora.
Clouzot suggested the Belgian murder mystery Légitime défense (English: Self-Defense) by Stanislas-André Steeman which he had read during the Occupation.
This production was meant to be a commission to end Clouzot's four years of enforced inactivity and take advantage of the new popular style of crime literature.
Clouzot had previously written screenplays based on Steeman's work including Georges Lacombe's Le Dernier des six (1943) and his own debut, L'Assassin habite au 21 (1942).
Clouzot wrote a letter to Steeman to obtain a copy and began to adapt the story from memory with writer Jean Ferry.
The changes in the script include the identity of the real murderer, the settings of the action, and the introduction of the lesbian photographer character Dora Monier.
[4][5] Quai des Orfèvres was also a comeback film for director-actor Louis Jouvet with whom Clouzot had become good friends before World War II.
[4] Clouzot agreed and cast Leo Lapara as one of Antoine's colleagues and Fernand René as the music hall director.
In 1964 Jean Mitry wrote that the film is "one of the few films—with Renoir's Rules of the Game, All About Eve, and two or three others—which allows us to think that the cinema, like the novel and the theater, can some day be an instrument for exploring the human soul.
"[4] In 1986, Michel Perez wrote a review for Le Matin de Paris stating that Quai des Orfèvres "was nothing less than the most powerful, best constructed, best written, best directed and most telling film about society of its day.
[17] The film ranking website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 100% approval rating, based on 32 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.34/10.
The site's consensus reads: "Henri Georges-Clouzot's engrossing noir explores the troubles of post-war France and the line dividing social struggle and criminality".