Henri-Georges Clouzot directs Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot and Paul Meurisse in this French classic about a wife and her husband’s mistress who plan the perfect murder.

This moves at a leisurely pace but still waters run deep and treacherous. It is probably the most Hitchcockian film Alfred never made. And because it was made on the continent it is a decade franker about sex, violence and immorality than the Master of Suspense could be in Hollywood. The set pieces on paper are quite mundane: an unwanted hitch-hiker clambering into the back of a van, a set of keys needing fished out of the water, a walk down a long dark corridor to investigate a noise. Clouzot rings them for every drop of tension… even though with modern eyes you can see the big heart stopping reveal moving from under its sheet very early on.

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