Diabolique

I’m not super familiar with French horror. Off the top of my head the only ones that I think I’ve seen are Eyes Without a Face, High Tension, Calvaire, and Diabolique. Of course two of these films differ quite a lot from the other two (for the record, it’s Eyes Without a Face/Diabolique versus Calvaire/High Tension).

Diabolique was written by Jérôme Géronimi (The Wages of Fear) and Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Spy), directed by Clouzot, and based on She Who Was No More by Boileau-Narcejac (Faces in the Dark). Diabolique was released on January 29, 1955 in France and November 21, 1955 in the US and made $12,498 worldwide against an unknown budget. Reviews were largely positive, however it was received quite negatively in Britain. 

Diabolique follows Christina Delassalle (Véra Clouzot, The Wages of Fear), a teacher who plots to murder her abusive husband (Paul Meurisse, Dilemma of Two Angels) with the help of his mistress (Simone Signoret, Room at the Top). Their plot succeeds, but they grow increasingly paranoid after his body disappears and the students claim to have seen him around the school.

Diabolique is a good movie, but it’s one that I always think I’m going to like more than I actually do whenever I rewatch it. I think a large part of that is the truly fantastic final sequence. It’s incredibly tense and the image of Michel’s “corpse” rising from the bathtub is quite haunting. However, the film does have some pacing problems that drag it down. At 114 minutes, the film could stand to close maybe 15 or so minutes.

However, there’s a lot to like about the film. The performances from the three leads are all great and Clouzot’s direction is Hitchcockian in all of the right ways. Most of the set pieces work and I am in love with the costuming.

I’m a little torn about the twist ending. It’s certainly shocking, and does force the viewer to reevaluate everything that had come before, but it also completely changes the dynamic between the two women at the center of the plot and I’m not sure it’s for the better.

Rating: 3.5 dirty pools out of 5

Other Observations:

• Does the Dog Die? No animals are harmed!

• Harrison’s Favorite Scare: As mentioned above, the climactic bathtub scene.

• Tragically, this was the second of only three films that Véra Clouzot appeared in. She died of a heart attack just five years after this film was released at the age of 46.

Next Week: George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead.