Anthony Perkins plays an is-he-crazy or is-he-not post Norman Bates role and Maurice Ronet plays the French version of that same character. They were like twins...but were they killers?
What I liked about this movie was the dual role played by French actress Stephane Audran. With a little black wig, brown contact lenses and buck teeth, she played the mousy secretary Jacqueline. With her natural blonde hair and blue eyes she played seductress Lydia.
Nobody else in the cast was very effective except for Audran and it was interesting to see her as a lovesick chick-on-the-side to the married Perkins, and as the faithful, bland secretary who gratefully took the orders of her mistress, Perkins' wife.
The final scene was staged uniquely by director Claude Chabrol and it was very effective. As Ronet, Perkins and Audran all fight for a gun to kill each other for a variety of reasons, the camera pulls away from inside the red-carpeted bedroom where the three are wrestling around. The camera continues to pull away until just a small red square with the three writhing bodies is center-stage around a black border that just gets bigger and bigger. Then the Universal logo appears and that's the end.
You don't find out who won the fight and it makes for a great ending to, as I said. a pretty standard "who-is-the-killer" movie. It's worth watching for Audran's performance, though small in number of scenes; and for that last fighting shot.
What I liked about this movie was the dual role played by French actress Stephane Audran. With a little black wig, brown contact lenses and buck teeth, she played the mousy secretary Jacqueline. With her natural blonde hair and blue eyes she played seductress Lydia.
Nobody else in the cast was very effective except for Audran and it was interesting to see her as a lovesick chick-on-the-side to the married Perkins, and as the faithful, bland secretary who gratefully took the orders of her mistress, Perkins' wife.
The final scene was staged uniquely by director Claude Chabrol and it was very effective. As Ronet, Perkins and Audran all fight for a gun to kill each other for a variety of reasons, the camera pulls away from inside the red-carpeted bedroom where the three are wrestling around. The camera continues to pull away until just a small red square with the three writhing bodies is center-stage around a black border that just gets bigger and bigger. Then the Universal logo appears and that's the end.
You don't find out who won the fight and it makes for a great ending to, as I said. a pretty standard "who-is-the-killer" movie. It's worth watching for Audran's performance, though small in number of scenes; and for that last fighting shot.