Saturday, July 7, 2012

How Christina and Nicole Spent their Weekend Vacation

This post is part of The Best Hitchcock Movies (That Hitchcock Never Made) Blogathon, running from July 7th through July 13th, 2012. On July 7th, please wish Sir Alfred Hitchcock's lovely and talented daughter Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell a very happy 84th Birthday!

Henri-Georges Clouzot, the director of French suspense films such as The Wages of Fear and Le Corbeau, premiered his 1955 thriller Diabolique in New York City at what was then The Fine Arts Theater. How ironic that this premiere was doubling as a benefit for the Herald Tribune Fresh Air Fund, considering the moviegoers found themselves gasping for breath from terror!  Produced by Vera Films, named after Clouzot’s leading lady in real and reel life, Vera Clouzot (The Wages of Fear; Les Espions), Diabolique continues to haunt audiences not only because of its fear factor, but also for its moving characterizations and performances. Diabolique’s title translates variously as Les Diaboliques; The Fiends; and The Devils, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s one of cinema’s most suspenseful films in any language! (For those of us who don’t speak French, distributor Janus Films provided subtitles.)
You're witnessing a rare sight:
Christina DeLassalle smiling!
It’s been said that no less than Team Bartilucci’s favorite fearmeister Alfred Hitchcock was itching to get the rights to the source material, the French suspense novel She Was No More (Celle qui n'tait plus) by Pierre Boileau &  Thomas Narcejac, only to find Clouzot had just beaten Hitch to the punch. Either way, Hitchcock made darn sure he got the rights to another Boileau & Narcejac thriller pronto: D’Entre Les Morts, translated as From Among the Dead—or as Hitchcock and company more intriguingly titled it, Vertigo. In any case, for Diabolique, director Clouzot worked with co-writers René Masson, Frédéric Grendel, and Jérôme Géronimi to adapt Diabolique for the big screen.

Over Diabolique’s opening credits, there’s a tight close-up of already-brackish water, accompanied by a quote from French author Barbey D’Aurevilly, who specialized in tales of mystery and suspense exploring hidden motivations, hinting at evil without being explicitly concerned with anything supernatural:


“A painting is always quite moral when it is tragic, and it gives the horror of the things it depicts.”

D’Aurevilly is starting to sound like the French granddaddy of film noir to me! Heck, even Armand Thirard’s saturated black-and-white cinematography plunges us viewers into a sense of eerie foreboding without even trying. Just watching a lady walking with an open umbrella primed me to get ready to flee, or at least duck!

Our story begins at Institution DeLassalle—or as the subtitles I.D. it, DeLassalle Boarding School, which has clearly seen better days.  It’s bad enough that Headmaster Michel DeLassalle (Paul Meurisse of Army of Shadows; The Truth; Le deuxième soufflé) is sadistically cruel to his lovely but sickly wife, Christina (Ms. Clouzot), who has a serious heart condition. Michel’s idea of kindness and sympathy is to cruelly tease Christina about being a “cute little ruin.” But Michel doesn’t stop there; he even mistreats his mistress and fellow teacher Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret, Oscar-winner for Room at the Top and nominee for Ship of Fools, among her other triumphs).  Indeed, when we first meet teachers Christina and Nicole, they’ve long since bonded over their mutual love-turned-hatred for Michel, to the amazement of the rest of the school’s mostly male staff. On top of that, Christina is paying for the school in every sense; she’s not only footing the bills (it’s clear Michel married Christina for her money), but she’s also paying in emotional abuse, including her sorrow for the way the schoolboys have to eat lousy food, and how she has to beg for every little thing, as if she was some kind of servant instead of being the head of the school.  No wonder she and Nicole have joined forces to put Michel’s lights out—and we’re not talking about the school’s electric bills! The murder plot has poor Christina even more jittery than usual, since she’s a staunch Catholic, and she takes the whole “Thou shalt not kill” thing seriously.  (Sadly, those were the only three films Vera Clouzot made; ironically enough, it turned out that like the character she played in Diabolique, she really did have a weak heart, and she died in 1960.) 

Anyone can have a love triangle,
but these three have a hate triangle!
Although Christina is glum and/or fearful more often than not, when she’s walking and talking with her fellow teachers early in the film, we briefly see her as the bright, happy young woman she must have been before Michel wormed his way into her heart and bank account in her native Brazil. The holiday weekend has begun, and Christina is wearing a perky little outfit and twirling her parasol.  Her lovely smile almost breaks my heart, because life with Michel gives her so few things to smile about. Let this be a lesson, all you headstrong movie romantics: Get to know your sweeties before you decide to make a life with them!  Heed the lessons learned the hard way by Christina, Audrey Hepburn as Reggie Lampert in Charade, and so many others! Oy!

You know, if the DeLassalle Boarding School was a real place and its shabby conditions were discovered today, some hotshot news team would make it a cause célèbre even before anyone got wind of the murder plot Nicole and Christina are hatching!  I can see it all now: muscular, no-nonsense Robert Irvine of The Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible storming in to kick the entire staff’s collective butt while overhauling the menu big-time, then force-feeding Michel DeLassalle his own disgusting rotting fish. Meanwhile, the equally tough-as-nails Anthony Melchiorri of The Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible would overhaul the kids’ shabby dorms, too!  Do the boys’ parents ever actually visit this neo-hellhole? If Diabolique took place today, there would be lawsuits galore!  By the way, fans of Michel Serrault, perhaps best known to us Yanks as the star of La Cage Aux Folles and its two sequels, as well as Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud and Deadly Circuit, plays one of the teachers, Monsieur Raymond. He and the other teachers mostly put-up and shut-up; I guess they figure a job in a crummy boarding school with a nasty headmaster and unappetizing food is better than no job at all. And don’t get me started on that nasty, brackish swimming pool; the best use for it would be for a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon…or an ingeniously wicked murder plot which ultimately pulls our gals into a murderous game in which death is only the beginning of their nightmare! I can say no more!

Nobody will be seated during
the disgusting rotting fish scene
!
As is the case with Hitchcockian thrillers such as, say, Stanley Donen’s 1963 thriller Charade, Clouzot’s Diabolique is one of the (say it with me, people) Best Hitchcock Movies that Hitchcock Never Made! The crucial difference is that Charade and other playful Hitchcockian thrillers (as opposed to genuine Hitchcock films by Big Al himself) recall Hitchcock’s polished, soignée-yet-cheeky side a la North by Northwest, while Diabolique is more like a precursor of Hitchcock’s darker, more sinister thrillers such as Psycho; Shadow of a Doubt; The Wrong Man; Strangers on a Train; or Frenzy. I’ll admit it would have been fascinating to see how Hitchcock would have approached Diabolique. Darkly magnificent as Psycho is, Diabolique’s gloomy, misogynistic take on the story sinks into your gut and haunts your dreams, especially with the film’s taunting suggestions that perhaps there’s a touch of the supernatural in all this that nobody can escape. Even Diabolique’s opening credit sequence immediately makes us uneasy with that merciless close-up of the rainy, run-down DeLassalle Boarding School’s murky swimming pool, accompanied by children shrilly singing Georges Van Parys’ music off-key and off-screen. The film starts out at a leisurely pace, but as it goes along, the tension tightens like a noose, helped by skillful use of shadows and light. Without giving away its twists, I’ll only say that Diabolique gives new meaning to the phrase “cruel to be kind.”

“First I add a generous portion of gasoline. Then some nitroglycerine… a goodly amount of gunpowder…some Uranium 238…shake well, strike an ordinary match, make Michel drink it, and voila!”
"Do you have Prince Albert in the can?"
Has Michel come back to life just for
the school picture? Now that’s school spirit!
"Here's looking at you, kids!"
Vera Clouzot and Simone Signoret are electrifying as partners in suffering and murder. As the women plot to kill the bastard, Ms. Clouzot’s delicate loveliness and her anxious air plays beautifully off Signoret’s sexy, smoldering intensity and streetwise demeanor. As Christina and Nicole try to act like nothing is wrong after Michel takes his final dip in the DeLassalle School’s pool, weird things keep happening that make them wonder if Michel is somehow still alive after all their efforts. Michel’s suits unexpectedly turn up from the local cleaners, and in the school picture, there’s a shadowy figure who looks unnervingly like Michel!  Is the creep still alive and messing with the women’s heads, or is it karma, or could there really be something supernatural going on? (*GULP!*)  

On top of that, Inspector Fichet (Charles Vanel of Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear and Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, as well as several Tintin movies!) has been trying to help Christina in his kindly Columbo-esque way, but is this likable shaggy dog of a man actually a bulldog hot on the scent of the women’s guilt? That’s not to say there aren’t touches of comedy, albeit of the pitch-black variety. I especially got a kick out of of the scenes earlier in the film, when Nicole and Christina come to town for the next phase of their murder plot. As Christina and Nicole lure Michel to come to town for a permanent dip in the bathtub, their upstairs neighbors, Monsieur and Madame Herboux (Noel Roquevert and Therese Dorny) are unable to hear whether or not they won a prize on the radio show, because the tub the women use to weigh Michel down gets noisy when they have to drain the tub!  Diabolique is even darker than Hitchcock at his darkest! Which is scarier, the water sports in Diabolique or in Psycho? Watch them and decide for yourselves! :-)

I won't spoil the big shocker ending for you; I'll just repeat the request from the filmmakers:



"Don't be devils! Don't ruin the interest your friends could take in this film. Don't tell them what you saw. Thank you for them."
Trust me, your patience will be rewarded!

44 comments:

  1. Oh Dorian, you are sooooooooo right about this film. They don't come more suspenseful than this! This is one film that really is a must see. Great post and a great start to what promises to be an exciting blogathon!

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    1. FlickChick, beaucoup thanks for your comments on my take on DIABOLIQUE! It's so scary, it just might have put a chill in the bone of Henri-Georges Clouzot himself! If I had a time machine, I'd love to go back to the 1955 DIABOLIQUE U.S. premiere and watch those 1950s moviegoers freak out, in a good way! :-) I'm really looking forward to your LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN post on Monday!

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  2. Excellent post. Two lovely gals. Signoret is so sexy and Clouzot is just gorgeous. The first time you see this is thrilling. I still don't get what the detective is doing at the end. His timing could have been better. It's like he intentionally waits too long to make his appearance.

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    1. Great to hear from you, readerman! Your comments really conjured up your justifiable praise for DIABOLIQUE in general and those superb actresses Vera Clouzot and Simone Signoret in particular; I wish they could have made more films together.

      I always enjoy Charles Vanel as Inspector Fichet. Without giving anything away to any movie lovers or readers who haven't had the suspenseful pleasure of DIABOLIQUE's denoument, I chalked up much ofof Fichet's attitude to that famous Gallic sangfroid! :-) Thanks for dropping by to talk DIABOLIQUE; you're always welcome to join the chat!

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  3. This post now makes me want to see it. Thanks!

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    1. Matt, thanks for your enthusiastic comment about my DIABOLIQUE post! Although I'd suggest to most movie-loving parents (like our family) might want to wait until the younger kids are a little older before watching DIABOLIQUE, they'll love it when they're in their teens and up for scary movies! :-)

      I'm very much looking forward to your NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH post over at Classic Cinema Reviews for Kids on Thursday. Thanks for dropping by, Matt!

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  4. This is a brilliant film! Clouzot hits just about all the right notes. I would say the only thing missing is some dark humor that Hitchcock always managed to incorporate. A minor point. The atmosphere, the eeriness, the suspense, the acting are all top notch. This is indeed one of the best Hitchcock films he never made. Team B has written a great kick off to the blogathon

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    1. John, many thanks for your enthusiastic praise for my take on DIABOLIQUE! I quite agree that a bit more Hitchcockian gallows humor would have been the icing on an already wickedly delicious cake, but with everything else going for DIABOLIQUE, it seems churlish to complain. I'm looking forward to everyone else's BEST HITCHCOCK MOVIES...NEVER MADE, too, especially your upcoming DRESSED TO KILL post! :-)

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  5. One of my all-time faves, Dorian, and you did justice to it!

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    1. Sean, thanks very much for your praise of my DIABOLIQUE post! This film is unquestionably one of the all-time greats, horror-movie-wise! :-) I'm eager to read your review of THE PRESTIGE tomorrow, too!

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  6. This is a great film and does harken back to Hitchcock's moodier/darker films of the 1940's like Shadow of a Doubt or Notorious. This too is a psychological study of what evil lies within each of us and how far we are willing to go. Like Hitchcock, there is a certain amount fear within each character too, whether it be fear of another or being caught.

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    1. Gilby, your comments about DIABOLIQUE beautifully captured all the great elements that make this film so gripping and unforgettable, particularly the psychological aspects! BRAVA on your detailed insight into the characters' fear of being caught! I'm also very much looking forward to your RANDOM RAMBLINGS post about MIDNIGHT LACE!

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    2. I hope it will be as good as this article. Plus, it would be great if I could get my reply feature to work like this one does!

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    3. Aw, you're a sweetie, Gilby; thanks for your kind words! I don't know if your blog program is Blogger or something else, but I've found the "Reply" function useful.

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  7. This is a wonderful review!
    I have to really rise to the occasion with my review of DIABOLIQUE on the 10th!
    :)

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  8. You did a wonderful job with this review!
    I really have to rise to the occasion for my post on DIABOLIQUE on the 10th.
    :)

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    1. Monica, thanks so much for your kind words about my DIABOLIQUE post! I'm confident your own take on the movie will be spectacular -- looking forward to it!

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  9. Dorian, I suppose it would be stating the obvious to say I love this film, and your wonderful vision made me giggle and want to relive the thrills and chills. If there is one thing Agatha Christie mysteries have taught me, when a man and a woman seem to be unnatural adversaries, there is trouble ahead. Despite that insight, “Diabolique” took me completely by surprise and I didn’t know what to expect. I should also admit that I had heard of but not seen the 1955 version when the remake appeared in 1996 (the arrogance!). I quickly decided I had no interest in seeing the new version and made sure I saw the original. Why do people continually delude themselves that they can improve on perfection? In future the response should be, “Honey, have we not learned our lesson from the remake of “The Women”?

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    1. whistlinggypsy, thanks a million for your kind praise AND for your delightfully witty comments! I usually try to be open-minded and give a remake a fair shake, but the original DIABOLIQUE has me spellbound every time. As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Moreover, I absolutely love what you said about the futility of lackluster remakes of classics: "...In future the response should be 'Honey, have we not learned our lesson from the remake of 'The Women?'" :-) I can hardly wait to see your Blogathon post, THE WHITE ANGEL!

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  10. Dorian, Great post on a great film. I understand Hitchcock screened it often while he was making "Vertigo." There's no question in my mind that the French film influenced "Psycho." Hitchcock's earlier sinister thrillers, while chilling and even terrifying, lacked the element of horror that is such a strong undercurrent in both Clouzot's film and "Psycho."

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    1. Eve, many thanks for your positive comments about my DIABOLIQUE post! It makes sense to me that Alfred Hitchcock would have seen DIABOLIQUE (heck, Hitchcock came THISCLOSE to grabbing the rights to the original Boileau-Narcejac novel); a savvy filmmaker like him would surely want to see what the competition was turning out! :-) You also make an excellent point about the particularly strong horror elements in Clouzot's work. Every filmmaker has his/her own take on the same stories, when you get right down to it.

      While we're on that subject, I know you were concerned about the Blogathon, and I truly hope you'll still be participating as originally and beautifully planned. Remember, several of us are blogging about the same films for this Blogathon, even me, and just as no two readers truly read the same novel, no two bloggers truly write and read the same blog post on the same movie! :-) Please stay; the Blogathon wouldn't be as much fun without you!

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    2. As I read the Boileau-Narcejac (an English translation) novel "D'Entre Les Morts," I visualized it much more in the style of Clouzot (existentially gloomy, in b&w, etc.) than Hitchcock's pyrotechnical "Vertigo." What Hitchcock did, of course, was take a well written piece of genre fiction and, imposing his creative vision and technical ingenuity, created an absolutely dazzling Technicolor/VistaVision masterpiece. (I'd still be curious to see what Clouzot would have made of it, though)

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    3. Eve, you make excellent points about Hitchcock's Technicolor/VistaVision vs. Clouzot's richly dark, stunning black-and-white. I'm reminded of Henry Hathaway's thriller NIAGARA, which had a gorgeous bright color palette, while still having the black heart of a film noir. Perhaps noir-style gloom and doom are in the eye of the beholder? :-)

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  11. "...sinks into your gut and haunts your dreams..." I'll wager it even gave Hitch nightmares!

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    1. You know, Caftan Woman, I bet you're right that Clouzot's DIABOLIQUE even gave Hitchcock the willies (especially since I've read that Clouzot was a tough taskmaster in real life)! Well, I guess that, to paraphrase the Perdue Chicken commercials, it takes a tough man to make a terrifying movie! :-) I'm looking forward to your EXPERIMENT IN TERROR tomorrow!

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  12. Great post on a terrific film. Haven't seen it in years but I do recommend it to people. Vera Clouzot's eyes say it all in this film; she is so good, and it's a difficult role. I'm not sure any Hollywood actress at that time could have done it justice.

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    1. CFB, I hope you get another chance to watch DIABOLIQUE again (it turned up on TCM recently). It's well worth another look, especially with the surprise ending (which I won't reveal!) I agree with you wholeheartedly about Vera Clouzot; she was the kind of actor who truly acted with her eyes, making you feel like you were in her shoes. On a related note, thinking about DIABOLIQUE got me thinking about OSSESSIONE, Luchino Visconti's Italian film version of James M. Cain's THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, because it too was inspired by film noir, yet had a more earthy feel to it. Thanks so much for your comments; feel free to join the TotED chat with us anytime, with or without Blogathons! :-)

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  13. Thank you, for a wonderful review to a film I have not yet seen. This film, sounds like it has lots of scary twists and turns. Also, the pictures you picked look pretty scary!!!

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    1. Thanks for your kind comments, Dawn, you're a pal! If you love movies that scare you, trust me, DIABOLIQUE will fill the bill, big-time! :-) Looking forward to your upcoming FOUL PLAY review!

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  14. Great post Dorian. I saw DIABOLIQUE again not long ago and realized that no matter how many times you watch it, the suspense is still there. And the couple upstairs from the murder scene are a hoot!!! The film is just amazing ...

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    1. Dave, many thanks for your praise! I agree, DIABOLIQUE is definitely one of those films whose suspenseful moments always feel fresh and unpredictable, no matter how many times you've seen it!

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  15. Great review, Dorian. Just the usual I've come to expect from your movie maven-ess. (That's like 'duchess' but different.) I could swear I've seen this film sometime in the misty long-ago. Probably couldn't watch it today though, too intense for my feeble old nerve-endings. HA!

    '...leading lady in real and reel life...' LOVE it, Dorian.

    I do love French films too. You know, I think I've told you, that two of my all time favorites are DIVA and LA BELLE ET LA BETE. ONLY in French with subtitles, bien sur.

    I'm playing catch-up now going around and seeing all the different posts. Great BLOGATHON, ladies.

    Oh, all right, maybe I will watch this one of these days. :)

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    1. Yvette, I'm honored by your praise of my "movie maven-ness" and my daffy turns of phrase! Many thanks, my dear friend! I'm glad upi enjoyed reading my DIABOLIQUE post! If you're feeling feisty and you can get your adorable granddaughter to bed, you and your daughter could have a mom-daughter movie night with DIABOLIQUE! With you gals hugging each other in fright, it'll be a real bonding moment! :-) On a related note, one of these days I'll have to review the comedy-thriller WHO IS KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE so I can tell you (and our fellow bloggers) about our family anecdote about how Mom and I stayed after ...CHEFS... to see a little movie that was then in previews, called HALLOWEEN -- another scary yet hilarious bonding moment! :-)

      You've also reminded me that I must catch up with LA BELLE ET LA BETE soon, as well as revisiting DIVA, which I've been wanting to see again for ages! Looking forward to ABOVE SUSPICION! :-)

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  16. Great post Dorian. And thats commendable that you didn't give the plot away - it has to be seen in its complete evolution of shock and horor. Though in black and white and with it's forlorn beginning, it seems like it could be an ordinary French movie. But not this one. It's still one of the darkest movies I've ever seen - done with an honest and old-fashioned plot development that needs no bursts of sound or trick photography to chill you to the bone. You are right about the two great actresses, and by the way, Simone Signoret was Yves Montand's wife for many years. Thanks for this great post and great blogathon.

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    1. Christian, thanks so much for your positive feedback about my take on DIABOLIQUE! I'm a great believer in keeping shocking movie secrets, or if worse comes to worst, great big Spoiler Alerts! :-) I agree with you that not only is DIABOLIQUE one of the darkest (literally!) suspense films ever made, but it also earns its chills and thrills the good old-fashioned way, with great acting, plotting, and atmosphere -- no CGI whistles and bells required. And yes, I like Simone Signoret, too; indeed, I remember my dear late mom talking about Signoret and her hubby Yves Montand; they sounded like quite a couple! I'm looking forward to reading your upcoming post about THE STRANGER!

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  17. Dorian!

    I thoroughly enjoyed your post on Diabolique- you nailed it on it's eerie head. I think the Best Hitchcock films Hitchcock Never Made is a smashing success and I'm thrilled to be joining you clever and humorous folks who make reading about the love of film as enjoyable as watching them!

    See you soon: MonsterGirl (Joey)

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  18. Dorian!

    I thoroughly enjoyed your post on Diabolique- you nailed it on it's eerie head. I think the Best Hitchcock films Hitchcock Never Made is a smashing success and I'm thrilled to be joining you clever and humorous folks who make reading about the love of film as enjoyable as watching them!

    See you soon: MonsterGirl (Joey)

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    1. Joey, a MonsterGirl by any name is still as fun as you are gracious! :-) Thanks a million for your enthusiastic praise for my DIABOLIQUE blog post, and also, thanks for not only enjoying our Blogathon labor of love, but for being part of it yourself! I see you've already posted your ROAD GAMES/KARLOFF'S THRILLER two-fer, so I'm gonna head right over and enjoy your post! :-)

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  19. Dorian!
    Great piece. I've started to watch DIABOLIQUE several times and have turned away. I'm a sissy - scared the bejeesus outta me. But I may well take a look after reading your insight.

    Only took me forever to find how/where to comment. I'm exhausted!

    Aurora

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    1. Aurora, sorry it took a while to find the comment section; the well-meaning folks at Blogger are always tinkering away in their attempts to improve their whistles and bells! But Blogger isn't anywhere near as scary as DIABOLIQUE! :-) I confess that when I first watched it a few years back, I kept chickening out, too. Finally, my husband Vinnie watched it with me and did a playful MST3K riff on it, and since then, I've been able to enjoy DIABOLIQUE for both its terror and its dark humor (witness my captions :-))! :-)

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  20. Even admiring and writing about Truffaut, I still have a gap in French cinema. I've already heard about Les Diaboliques, but never seen.
    It's interesting that a movie so close to Hitch's touch was made during his directing career, not after as a tribute. And more interesting is that he wanted to purchase the rights for story!
    Thanks for hosting this amazing blogathon, Dorian!
    Le

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    1. Le, thanks for your kind words about our Blogathon my review of LES DIABOLIQUES, as you folks call it in France! I agree, it's interesting that Alfred Hitchcock himself nearly got the rights to the film before Clouzot got it first. I wonder if moviegoers of the time thought of it as a "copycat," or if they were too busy having fun being scared during the movie? Thanks so much for participating along with us!

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  21. Dorian, well-done review of one of the first foreign-language films I ever watched. It was a poor-quality print and I remember missing out on crucial subtitles because they were superimposed over a white objects such as a table (these days, they'rd made those subtitles yellow). DIABOLIQUE holds well today, in fact much better than its American semi-remake GAMES, also with Simone (which I just watched recently).

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    1. Rick, thanks for your positive comments on my DIABOLIQUE post! It was one of the earliest subtitled foreign-language films I ever saw, too (the first one being Jean-Paul Belmondo's 1964 comedy-adventure THAT MAN FROM RIO, for the record). I watched DIABOLIQUE again on TCM's "The Essentials" to prepare myself for my blog post, and I not only enjoyed Robert Osbourne and Drew Barrymore's intros and outros, but I was also pleased that the subtitles were easy to read! :-) I've been meaning to catch up with GAMES; surely with that cast alone, it must be worth at least a look!

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