This adaptation of American noir novelist Richard Neely's 'Damned Innocents', with the setting transposed from Laguna Beach to St. Tropez, has been unfairly overlooked as it represents a director on top form. It adds an ingenious twist to the all too familiar plot of the young lovers bumping off the superfluous husband and succeeds in gripping from the outset.
What strikes one mainly is the way in which the ever-changing coiffure and outfits of gorgeous Romy Schneider, the film's sole female character, reflect the various aspects of her femininity in relation to husband, lover, policemen, judge and lawyer. She is a talented enough actress as it is and has been further enhanced by designer Yves Saint Laurent who has dressed her to be by turns seductive, murderous and demure. Her birthday suit in the opening scene is of course courtesy of Mother Nature.
Her scenes with her husband, an excellent and well-dubbed Rod Steiger, are riveting and there is a marvellous turn by Jean Rochefort as her cynical, razor-sharp lawyer, appropriately named Maitre Légal whilst Francois Maistre and Pierre Santini as a pair of comedy commissaires provide the Hitchcockian touch.
Claude Chabrol is one of those directors, unlike some I could mention, who instinctively knows when music is NOT required and here Pierre Jansen's score is effectively used whilst Jean Rabier is again behind the camera. Jacques Gaillard edits.
Chabrol's output was varied to say the least and of the mixed bag of films made either side of his Golden Era this ranks, for this viewer at any rate, as one of his best.
Chabrol's own view? "The film is not terrible and is still a curiosity."
What strikes one mainly is the way in which the ever-changing coiffure and outfits of gorgeous Romy Schneider, the film's sole female character, reflect the various aspects of her femininity in relation to husband, lover, policemen, judge and lawyer. She is a talented enough actress as it is and has been further enhanced by designer Yves Saint Laurent who has dressed her to be by turns seductive, murderous and demure. Her birthday suit in the opening scene is of course courtesy of Mother Nature.
Her scenes with her husband, an excellent and well-dubbed Rod Steiger, are riveting and there is a marvellous turn by Jean Rochefort as her cynical, razor-sharp lawyer, appropriately named Maitre Légal whilst Francois Maistre and Pierre Santini as a pair of comedy commissaires provide the Hitchcockian touch.
Claude Chabrol is one of those directors, unlike some I could mention, who instinctively knows when music is NOT required and here Pierre Jansen's score is effectively used whilst Jean Rabier is again behind the camera. Jacques Gaillard edits.
Chabrol's output was varied to say the least and of the mixed bag of films made either side of his Golden Era this ranks, for this viewer at any rate, as one of his best.
Chabrol's own view? "The film is not terrible and is still a curiosity."