BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

grantss Michel Delassalle is the principal of a boarding school, and widely loathed. This loathing extends to his wife, Christina, and his mistress, Nicole Horner, both of whom work at the school. The two of them hatch a plan to murder Mr Delassalle while having the perfect alibi. They carry out the plan...but then his body disappears.Clever, classy thriller from French director HG Clouzot. Intelligent, intriguing plot and well-drawn characters, the sort of story Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle would be proud of, and Alfred Hitchcock would love to have directed. Great twist towards the end. Good direction by Clouzot: he sets the scene well and builds the tension in superb fashion, giving a claustrophobic feeling to proceedings. Solid performances all round.A classic thriller.

classicsoncall I'm not generally given to superlatives and was quite taken by the number of reviewers here who make the claim for "Diabolique" as the most suspenseful film of all time. I too actually thought it was very good with a caveat that comes with the finale of the story which I'll get to in a bit. Director Clouzot really did a masterful job in extending the long exposition of this mystery. If one is fully engaged in the story, it's like chomping at the bit to figure out what's going on with the missing corpse from the pool and unexplained sightings of Michel Delassalle after he'd been 'murdered'. One should probably be able to see the twist coming, and maybe you could in another film, but this is one that plays on one's imagination in a way that blinds you to the eventual outcome. I thought it was just magnificently done.The thing that bothered me about the ending are twofold. In the first instance, even if Michel (Paul Meurisse) and his lover Nicole (Simone Signoret) did manage to scare the frail Christina (Vera Clouzot) to death, what would be the basis for retired police commissioner Alfred Fichet (Charles Vanel) to arrest him for? Scaring someone to death to my mind seems more like conjecture than a chargeable crime. Who could prove it? Even though Fichet overheard the conversation between the conspirators, I don't see why a sharp lawyer couldn't put the blame on Christina's easily confirmed medical history and recent weakened condition.The other issue comes courtesy of the young boy Moinet (Yves Marie-Maurin) who was disbelieved by all who heard him state that he saw the school principal after he disappeared. When he says he 'saw' Christina after she collapsed and was presumed dead, there was no confirmation in the story to prove the point. I'll grant that it was a good hook to keep the viewer guessing, just as it was the first time with Michel's 'murder'. But with former cop Fichet on hand, and school personnel around who would have to have removed the body, wouldn't it have to be established that she was actually dead? If one presumes so, then the scene with Moinet is a moot one.One thought I had while watching was that this would have been a good film for Alfred Hitchcock to take under his wing, and was pleasantly educated by a handful of reviewers who stated that he missed getting the script for this film by a whisker. "Diabolique" was certainly worthy of a Hitchcock treatment, as I found it better than some of his venerated films like "Strangers on a Train" and "Shadow of a Doubt". If one disregards some of my earlier critique, I think it holds up as a pretty suspenseful thriller that keeps you guessing right till the very end.

happytrigger-64-390517 Since the age of 6, I've lived in the village where the school scenes were shot (that castle was at the time abandoned and Clouzot wanted to buy it to get his studios inside, but it was too expensive, now it's the Town Hall since 1968). Each time I went to school (not the movie's one), I kept thinking of that horrific movie and when I saw it at 15, I was quite impressed, discovering Clouzot's Noir filmography.Like the townspeople watching at the shooting and how the beautiful castle had become sinister, full of mud all around. During the shooting since three weeks, all the team was completely sad and sinister, shooting night and day. They got more joyful when eating in the local restaurants. A lot of villagers came at the gate to watch with excitement all the famous team shooting one of the most well known classic thrillers. Clouzot never shot again in that village, and no other movie was shot there.

emijawdo Les diaboliques is a compelling mystery with a hint of crime & horror elements. It is about two women who conspire to murder their lover and the mysterious series of events that occur after his body disappears.The two protagonists', Nicole Horner (Simone Sgnoret), and Christina Delasalle (Véra Clouzot), performances helped add the horror aspect to the movie. They were captivating and navigated skillfully the guilt- determination dilemma. The settings were not that varied yet sufficient to the story's development and the lightning tricks helped fuel the viewer's curiosity and attachment to the story line.The innovative, eventful story line is complemented by the actors' performances and a spot on cinematography to amount to one of the few movies that could compete with Hitchcock in the genre he defined.An appropriate tag-line for the movie would be "things aren't always what they seem"It's a classic masterpiece of the genre that any film aficionado should not miss.