Les Diaboliques

1955's LES DIABOLIQUES was a film I first learned of from its 1996 remake with Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani.  I did not see that version (and don't have any immediate plans to do so), but remember its release and tepid reception.  It was one of several redos of this serpentine tale of two women - a wife and a mistress who dispatch their loutsome paramour.  Or so they think.  Director Henri-Georges Clouzot beat Alfred Hitchcock for the rights to this tale, originally told in the novel She Who Was No More by Boileau-Narcejac, and created a bona-fide classic.  What I consider a close to perfect thriller with an exemplary screenplay.  One of the best implementations of plotting (courtesy of the director and Jerome Geronimi) in mid-twentieth century cinema, on any continent.

Vera Clouzot and Simone Signoret respectively portray Christina, the mousy wife, and Nicole, the outspoken mistress, of boarding school headmaster Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse), an arrogant and cruel SOB hated not only by his women but also his students and staff.   Christina, whose money funds the school, and Nicole, who also teaches there, join forces to rid the world of Michel with an elaborate plan with what Nicole (who masterminded) believes is an airtight alibi.   

The women travel to Nicole's flat out of town.  Christina phones Michel, seeking a divorce.  Knowing this will get him on the first train there, they plan to get him drunk and drown him in the bathtub.  Christina is reluctant at first but as she recalls her husband's brutish behavior she summons the nerve.  The plan succeeds.  Our heroines bring the body back to the school and dump it in the (filthy and neglected) swimming pool.  The body will most certainly emerge, and it will be concluded that the fellow either had a inebriated accident or committed suicide.  After a few days and frayed nerves, the women order the pool drained.  No body. 

For many, LES DIABOLIQUES really gets going at this point, as Christina and Nicole wonder of their sanity when Michel's suit (which he wore when he was drowned) is delivered by the dry cleaners.  One of the students insists Michel just punished him for breaking a window with his slingshot.  The rest I'll leave you to discover.  Also for many, this movie is a kind of forefather of cinematic twists and turns, especially that bravura climax, the likes of which wasn't really seen in a movie before.   I also liked the very last scene, the sort of ambiguity that will send your mind racing as you smile, uh, devilishly.

The plot is so involving and delicious you may miss Clouzot's stylish direction, especially in those late scenes in a dark hall, with ominous shadows and filtered light.   The entire film is beautifully blocked and shot, quite Hitchcockian, in fact.  Vera, the director's wife is convincingly frail and Signoret has this formidable masculine presence, yet is tantalizingly sexy.   Charles Vanel is a delight as a private eye who begins investigating the case after spying Christina at the morgue, there to identify a body found by the police.  His methods may remind you of a certain rumpled detective later played on television by Peter Falk.

Also, kudos to whoever designed those contact lenses.  You won't forget them.