The boys' school in Saint Cloud, a suburb of Paris, run by Michel and Christina Delassale, serves as the background for one of the best suspense thrillers of the French cinema. The school belongs to Christina, but it's Michel who has the last word about everything. This penny pinching man insists in giving his students living at the boarding school the worst food money can buy. Michel is also a man who loves to slap his wife, and his mistress, Nicole Horner, who is a teacher at the school.
When we first meet them, Nicole has a swollen eye and wears dark glasses to hide her shame. Obviously, everyone guesses what is really going on between Michel and Nicole, even his wife. Christina is aware of the extra-marital goings on between her husband and his mistress. A strong minded Nicole shows how she dominates the weaker Christine. Nicole, who is fed up with the situation convinces Christina something must be done. She sets things in motion to go to her home town during a brief vacation so that Christina and Nicole attract Michel to come after them as they have a plan of their own about how to deal with his abuses.
The women's plan is to bring Michel's body back to the school and dump him in the murky swimming pool, where he would be discovered as drowned by accident, or perhaps his own suicide. When the pool is drained, there is no corpse. When one of Michel's suits is sent from a dry cleaner's the women are dumbfounded. When they go to investigate, the owner hands them a key for a nearby hotel room.
Christina, who is a fragile woman with what appears to be a weak heart, feels guilty. When she reads in the newspaper about a drowning victim found on the Seine, she has to find out to see if it's her husband. Of course, the dead man is not Michel, which heightens the mystery. What Christina didn't count on is the retired inspector, Alfred Fichet, who watches her outside the viewing room at the morgue. This man will become the key figure to solving Michel's disappearance.
"Les Diaboliques" was Clouzot's triumph because the suspense works until the end. He based his screen play in a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejar, who also served as the basis for "Vertigo". In fact, much has been said about the similarities between the two directors, but it is unfortunate because both men approached their work in different ways. Clouzot hints subtly at perhaps a lesbian relationship between Nicole and Christine as it appears both want to be rid of the horrible Michel.
The acting is first rate. Simone Signoret, one of the best and most attractive actresses of her era, makes an earthy Nicole. She is calculating because there is a lot at stake. Vera Clouzot plays Christine as a bundle of nerves because of the gravity of her actions. Paul Meurisse is the evil Michel. Charles Vanet is the old inspector Fichet. Also in the cast, a young Michel Serrault, and the singer Johnny Holiday, who appears uncredited as one of the boys in the school.
Henri Georges Clouzot was at the top of his craft and he clearly showed he was a master of suspense, bar none.
When we first meet them, Nicole has a swollen eye and wears dark glasses to hide her shame. Obviously, everyone guesses what is really going on between Michel and Nicole, even his wife. Christina is aware of the extra-marital goings on between her husband and his mistress. A strong minded Nicole shows how she dominates the weaker Christine. Nicole, who is fed up with the situation convinces Christina something must be done. She sets things in motion to go to her home town during a brief vacation so that Christina and Nicole attract Michel to come after them as they have a plan of their own about how to deal with his abuses.
The women's plan is to bring Michel's body back to the school and dump him in the murky swimming pool, where he would be discovered as drowned by accident, or perhaps his own suicide. When the pool is drained, there is no corpse. When one of Michel's suits is sent from a dry cleaner's the women are dumbfounded. When they go to investigate, the owner hands them a key for a nearby hotel room.
Christina, who is a fragile woman with what appears to be a weak heart, feels guilty. When she reads in the newspaper about a drowning victim found on the Seine, she has to find out to see if it's her husband. Of course, the dead man is not Michel, which heightens the mystery. What Christina didn't count on is the retired inspector, Alfred Fichet, who watches her outside the viewing room at the morgue. This man will become the key figure to solving Michel's disappearance.
"Les Diaboliques" was Clouzot's triumph because the suspense works until the end. He based his screen play in a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejar, who also served as the basis for "Vertigo". In fact, much has been said about the similarities between the two directors, but it is unfortunate because both men approached their work in different ways. Clouzot hints subtly at perhaps a lesbian relationship between Nicole and Christine as it appears both want to be rid of the horrible Michel.
The acting is first rate. Simone Signoret, one of the best and most attractive actresses of her era, makes an earthy Nicole. She is calculating because there is a lot at stake. Vera Clouzot plays Christine as a bundle of nerves because of the gravity of her actions. Paul Meurisse is the evil Michel. Charles Vanet is the old inspector Fichet. Also in the cast, a young Michel Serrault, and the singer Johnny Holiday, who appears uncredited as one of the boys in the school.
Henri Georges Clouzot was at the top of his craft and he clearly showed he was a master of suspense, bar none.