Coup de Torchon (Bertrand Tavernier, 1981)

 

It's been years since I read the novel Pop 1280 by Jim Thompson. The novel was set in Texas before World War One; this movie, based on it, is in French West Africa in 1938. They see World War Two looming on the horizon, but they assume it will be a repeat of World War One. The novel had the added element of the Sheriff having to run for re-election. 

Lucien Cordier, the only police officer in a small town in French colonial Africa, is lazy and ineffectual. He's physically humiliated by local pimps and by police in a nearby town who he turns to for advice. His wife is sleeping with a man she claims is her brother who lives with them. 

Lucien turns out to be a violent manipulative psychopath which is kind of nice at first. He's the least racist white character in the movie, but he does pretty much nothing for Africans. 

Available on the Criterion Channel.