Jacques Levert

Biography

A.R. Jacques Mortier, alias Jacques Levert, is a close friend of Jean Renoir since they were together in school, probably in Cagnes-sur-Mer (Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, new home of the Pierre-Auguste Renoir family since 1903) or Nice where the Mortier family was established. Jacques Mortier played a cameo part as police commissioner for Renoir's film Toni (1935), a film he inspired to Renoir in a conversation in 1934, and in which he was credited for the materials he had researched for a novel of that title, based on a real life crime he had investigated as police commissioner. It seems he never finished that novel. In that film, the importance of the godfather figure in Catholic communities is emphasized, and we should know that Mortier had been godfather to Jean Renoir's son, Alain Renoir, born in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1921. Mortier had a career as police commissioner in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region: Martigues, Menton, Antibes and Nice. Under his alias, he was a writer of crime novels, probably based in his professional experience; he was affiliated to the Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL) from 1931 to 1978, but no longer in 1985 (which may indicate he died before). His novel "Le 'Singe-Rouge'" (SEPE, Paris; Prize Quai des orfèvres, November 26, 1946) was written during the German occupation of France. Yet, he was free and working as Chef de Section at the Direction de la Police de Sûreté in Vichy, the capital of free France, after the partial occupation by the German army. In February 23, 1943, Jacques Mortier was promoted to the post of Cannes' Central Police Commissioner, back to the region where he had always lived, studied, and made friends. Mortier graduated in Law, probably from the Institut d'Etudes Juridiques de Nice, re-established in 1938 and a branch of the Faculté de Droit d'Aix-en-Provence. Jean-Toussaint Samat (1891-1944) based at least six of his popular crime novels on Maurice Levert, former commissioner of Martigues: L'Horrible Mort de Miss Gildchrist (Paris 1932 ; 1947), Le Mort à la fenêtre (Paris, 1933 ; 1946), Le Mort de la Canebière (Paris, 1934 ; 1946), Le Mort du vieux chemin (Paris, 1934 ; 1946), Le Mort du Vendredi Saint (Paris, 1938 ; 1946), and Le Mort et sa fille (Paris, 1949 (posthumous work finished by his daughter Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat). His character is an homage to Jacques Levert, alter ego of Jacques Mortier.