It is indeed unusual when a movie arrives in this vicinity which has sufficient merit to pull veteran Western fans away from their early evening television vigils. Especially during reading and exam periods when the academic world weighs heavy on the undergraduate mind and the desire for Escape becomes greater each day, the Western assumes an even larger role in the Harvard community.

However, the arrival in Boston and Cambridge of two Jean Gabin films, both in the finest roman policier manner, should seriously damage the rating of such standbys as Wyatt Earp, Rawhide, Have Gun-Will Travel, and Gunsmoke. Gabin, of course, is the acknowledged king of French tommy-gun flicks. With his slightly paunchy and degenerate mien he is the very image of the slightly world-weary tuff guy, and the casual manner in which he slaps around both the guilty and the innocent is beyond compare.

Inspector Maigret, which has been at the Exeter for several weeks, is a bit on the psychological side, but not quite intellectual enough to be disastrous, Based on a Georges Simenon novel, the film concerns the untimely demise of a long string of plump, middle-age women in a small Paris district. The murderer becomes overconfident, and in one of his triumphant moments makes the mistake of calling the famous Maigret to goad him into action. Once the pipe-smoking, perpetually weary Maigret arrives on the scene, however, the ball-game is clearly over for the murderer. Using most of the slightly illegal police grilling methods, Maigret begins to round up suspects, one of whom, Annie Girardot, turns out to be the wife of a nervous gentleman who puts up a front as a successful young architect.

In no time at all, Gabin finds himself involved with a rather unsavory assortment of jigolos, impotent husbands, virgin wifes, etc. Unfortunately, the identity of the murder is revealed, by a peculiar habit of knuckle cracking, to the audience near the middle of the film, and much of the suspense is lost, especially in the final scene when Gabin gives the killer-suspect, expertly acted by Jean Desailly, one of the finest and most subtle third degrees in recent film history.

The French are very much given to psychology and the like in their film making, and Inspector Maigret has more than its share. Mother-son, husband-wife, wife-mother-in-law relations are explored somewhat to the detriment of the story, but Gabin manages to turn the whole pot-pourri into a first-rate show.

The shoot-em-up fans have their day at the Brattle, where one of the finest French gangster flicks of all time is now showing. Razzia leaves nothing to be desired. The mystery which runs through the entire film does not reach its denouement until the very end, and there is enough violence to last all but the most sadistic for several weeks. Again Gabin is masterful, although he leaves the shooting to several excellently portrayed gangster types who expires at the film's end in a burst of machine gun fire.

The moviegoer is introduced to the drug rings of Paris and meets a fine assortment of homosexuals, lesbians, junkies, pushers, and the like, all engaged in providing the Paris populace with various forms of habit-forming goodies. The movie is filled with excellent scenes in Paris sub-cellars and dimly lit alleys, and the sex interest is provided by Magali Noel. In all, Razzia is one that can't be missed, and along with Inspector Maigret should provide excellent relief from exams and Westerns.

Indeed, the scheduling of the Brattle and Exeter is just right for the man who desires a full evening of Escape. Leaving your quiz at 5:15 in Memorial Hall, you can just make it to the Brattle in time for the first show. Since the Brattle lets out at 7:30 you should have time for a bite to eat before leaving for the Exeter, arriving there at 9:00 and missing the short subjects, which definitely should be missed. Maigret ends at 11:00, and with luck on the traffic lights you can be back in Cambridge by 11:15, just in time for Jack Paar.