MovieChat Forums > The Day of the Jackal (1973) Discussion > Capture of Informant/Bugging Question

Capture of Informant/Bugging Question

posted 10 years ago by KSzir
5 replies | jump to latest

I've seen this movie several times and watching it yesterday I came across something I don't understand. When Lebel reveals his recording to the cabinet, which proves one of them was supplying information to the informant, who was in turn passing it to the Jackal, he says something about them arresting the informant an hour ago. However, a few scenes later they show the woman OSS agent come into the minister's home and find him dead and Lebel waiting for her. So who was he referring to when they said they arrested the informant since he doesn't arrest her until after revealing the bugging?

[–] turtletommy 10 years ago

Lebel probably didn't want the minister somehow tipping off (or killing) his mistress/OSS agent that they were on to her before they could arrest her, so Lebel gave him and the other cabinet members who were wiretapped misleading information about her.

[–] schumithecat 10 years ago

maybe the person arrested was the male intermediary who would talk to the jackyl on the phone (the mistress got info from minister, who passed it to informant, who passed it to jackyl on the phone). by tapping the woman's phone they could learn who the informant was.

[–] stevekaczynski 9 years ago

Yes, there was the middle-aged man at the Molitor number. In the novel he takes time off work to stay in all day in case the Jackal calls requesting information.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

[–] greenleafie 8 years ago

His name was Valmy.

[–] stevekaczynski 8 years ago

Probably a code name. Valmy is a small town in eastern France that was the scene of a brief battle (not much more than an exchange of cannon fire) during the French Revolution. A Prussian attempt to overthrow the revolutionary government through invasion failed.
The character Valmy in the book is a school principal in Algeria who lost his job when the French gave up their colony there.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."