Les Diaboliques [Diabolique] ***** (1955, Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel, Michel Serrault) – Classic Movie Review 2354i

Co-writer/director Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1955 French spine-tingling suspense classic is based on the ingenious tale Celle Qui N’Etait Plus by the clever writers of Vertigo, Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. This stupendous, vintage gem of a mystery horror thriller is charismatically played by Simone Signoret and Véra Clouzot, the wife of the director.

It focuses on a sadistic boarding school headmaster in a French tatty small school, Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse), who seems to have been killed by his wife Christina (Véra Clouzot) and his mistress Nicole (Simone Signoret). The women plot together and drown the headmaster in the bathtub and dump his body in the school’s filthy swimming pool. But, when the pool is drained, the body has disappeared and, with the corpse vanished, who knows what’s going on, especially with subsequent reported sightings of the headmaster.

H-G Clouzot makes the most of the creepy suspense, seedy school atmosphere and eerily dark images. Completing a fine cast, Charles Vanel is the police commissioner snooping around, Michel Serrault is the school supervisor, Jean Brochard is the concierge, and Jacques Varennes and Pierre Larquey are two of the teachers.

The 15-year-old Georges Poujouly plays Soudieu, one of the pupils. He was also known for Forbidden Games (1952) and Lift to the Scaffold [Elevator to the Gallows] (1958).

It was remade in 1976 and again in 1996 as Diabolique with Sharon Stone, and often reworked. These other versions are further evidence of how great this one is. It runs 117 minutes but the original British release cut version ran only 92 minutes, with poor subtitles.

It was re-released in a thankfully newly re-subtitled and complete version in 1988.

Clouzot beat Alfred Hitchcock in buying the rights to Les Diaboliques with a margin of just a few hours. Hitchcock considered Clouzot a serious rival for his title of Master of Suspense. Clouzot returned the compliment: ‘I admire him very much and am flattered when anyone compares a film of mine to his.’

H-G Clouzot’s Le Corbeau [The Raven] (1943) had the distinction of being banned both by the Nazis and the victorious French forces. He shot to international fame with The Wages of Fear (1953) and consolidated that success here with Les Diaboliques. He died on January 12 1977, aged 69. Véra Clouzot died suddenly of a heart attack in 1960, aged just 46.

H-G Clouzot’s films are The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942), Le Corbeau (1943), Quai des Orfèvres (1947), Manon (1949), Retour à la Vie (1949), Miquette et Sa Mère (1950), The Wages of Fear (1953), Les Diaboliques (1955), The Mystery of Picasso (1956), Les Espions (1957), La Vérité (1960) and La prisonnière (1968).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2354

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