Voted the Best Foreign Language Film of 1955, this classic tale of terror and suspense French style was almost made by the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock. When Director, Henri-Georges Clouzot, bought the film rights to the original novel written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, he reportedly beat Hitchcock by only a matter of hours.
Only the French could concoct such a subtle tale of the wife and mistress of a boarding school plotting together to murder the sadistic husband. Not only is the movie suspenseful, it is also beautifully acted by a stellar cast headed by Simone Signoret, who plays to chilly precision, Nicole Horner, the mistress.
The plot dips and rises like a roller coaster as the two women drown the master (Paul Meurisse) in a bathtub and then dump the body into the school’s swimming pool. When the pool is drained, there is no body and that’s where the plot thickens and churns and builds to a crescendo of suspense that is almost too much for an audience to bear.
For the master is soon seen everywhere in town much to the dismay of his wife who has a heart condition (played deftly by Vera Clouzot, wife of the director of the film). She fears he is not dead and will return for revenge.
Slowly, but surely before the very eyes of a rapt audience, she is literally being scared to death. As far as art imitating life, the actress herself died in 1960 of a fatal heart attack, although this one was not prompted by evil machinations of her rival and husband of film.
Diabolique has been remade several times over the years but most were lackluster, poor imitations. The one exception was Reflections of Murder made in 1974 and starring the immensely talented Joan Hackett and Tuesday Weld as the evil mistress.
Which parts of the movie did YOU find scary? How do YOU feel about this classic film?