Police Python 357

• Yves Montand as Inspector Marc Ferrot
• Simone Signoret as Thérèse Ganay
• François Périer as Police Commissioner Ganay
• Mathieu Carrière as Inspector Ménard
• Stefania Sandrelli as Sylvia Leopardi
• Vadim Glowna as Inspector Acadie
• Claude Bertrand as Merchant of Pigs
• Serge Marquand as "The Red"

For his second film after France société anonyme , which a commercially unsuccessful, director Alain Corneau said to himself that he had to ask "What is that [I] really like about cinema?" and said that he loved film noir by Fritz Lang, Don Siegel and American b-movies and wanted to make a detective film. Corneau submitted his idea to producer Albina de Boisrouvray that was part based on a personal memory of his youth and part on Kenneth Fearing's novel The Big Clock. The producer suggested he teamup with playight and poet Daniel Boulganger. The film was shot and set in Orléans.

Police Python 357 was a international co-production between France and West Germany. It was 70% funded by the Paris based Albina Productions and 30% funded by the Munich based TIT Film-produktion.

Police Python 357 was released in France on March 31, 1976. The authors of French Thrillers of the 1970s: Volume I, Crime Films (2026) described it as being successful at the French box office, with over 1,464,000 spectators in France.

It was released in West Germany on September 9, 1976 as Im tödlichen Kreis. It was released in Los Angeles' international film festival; the Filmex Film Festival; as Police Python 357 on March 19, 1977. It was released in Santa Cruz on December 21, 1978 as Police Python while in Miami in December 21, 1979, it was re-titled The Case Against Ferro.

Police Python 357 won a César Award for Best Editing.