Review of Les Menteurs

Les Menteurs (1961)
5/10
Dawn Addams adds fuel to light weight thriller
22 July 2015
I saw this film under the title The Liars. The plot has a standard lovers-doing-away-with-the-rich-husband storyline. It's a mostly unremarkable film that gets a boost from the sex appeal of star Dawn Addams.

Paul, a rich older man, has returned to France after decades in Africa. Living in a country estate, the lonely Paul places an advertisement for an older woman to marry. Dominique is a low level conman who lives with Norma, an aspiring actress who adores the heel. Dominique sees the advertisement for a wife and smells money. He gets Norma to pass herself off as his forty-something mother (by apparently just putting on a wig and glasses). Paul is taken with Norma, and the couple marry. Dominique fakes a broken leg, so that he can move in with his new stepfather and "mother."

That is pretty much the set up. The rest of the film consists of a series of cat and mouse games. The young couple sneak off for sex, and Paul keeps nearly catching them. Dominique plots Paul's death, and Paul becomes increasingly suspicious of his stepson. Norma is caught in the middle, in lust with Dominique but also liking Paul.

The Liars includes odd throw away touches of humor. The driver chauffeuring Paul from the airport drives like a maniac for no apparent reason. Toward the end, a group of young layabouts (beatniks?) descend on Paul's château and make the place a shambles. All of this is to make a thin story all the more lighter, nor does the plot throw the audience much in the way of surprise. In fact, The Liars would be a completely dismissible film if not for Dawn Addams. The stunning Addams is the one reason to watch the film. I just wished the film had given her character more to do.
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