After the initial shock that comedy actor Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean", "Johnny English") plays the dead-serious role of inspector Jules Maigret, came the establishment that he does a terrific job with it. Atkinson possibly puts down the best portrayal of Georges Simenon's legendary and world-widely famous Parisian police detective, and especially the first two TV-movies ("Maigret Sets a Trap", "Dead Man") starring him are highly recommendable. "Maigret in Montmartre" is also a solid and enjoyable mystery/thriller, but it's somehow less compelling, less plausible and less involving than the previous installments. Maigret is devastated when the stunningly beautiful nightclub dancer Arlette is found strangled in her apartment. After all, she came to the police station the evening before, with a story that she overheard a murder plot, but most of all Maigret realizes she came to seek protection. When the mysterious "countess" Arlette was referring to is also found dead, Maigret and his team dig deeper in the background of the popular Arlette, but also clean out the sleazy Picratt club in the heart of Montmartre's red-light district. Atkinson is still as sober and integer as he was previously, but the script makes a few lame twists (the sentimental La Pointe, for instance) and some of the supportive characters (Philippe Martinot, club owner Fred Alfonsi, ...) are truly weak and unpersuasive. But the biggest letdown here is the "Oscar" character. Whodunit thrillers simply don't work if the culprit is revealed as somebody who doesn't appear in the story before.