Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse) and his wife, Christina (Vera Clouzot) own and operate a boys’ boarding school in the outskirts of Paris, France. Michel is an overbearing and abusive husband as well as a philanderer who married Christina for her money. He had an affair with a teacher at the school, Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret). Michel is also cruel to Nicole and the children at the school. The two women, instead of being hostel to each other, have banded together to commiserate how they are treated. Knowing how evil and oppressive he is, they decide to kill Michel.
The two women lure Michel to Nicole’s home on the pretense of discussing a divorce. When he shows up at Nicole’s apartment, they drug him and drown him in the bathtub. The next day they return to the school with Michel’s body hidden in a large wicker basket. Back at the school they dump Michel into the stagnant water of the school’s swimming pool and wait for the body to rise so it can be discovered by the handyman, Plantiveau (Jean Brochard). When the body doesn’t surface, Nicole pretends to accidentally throw something in the pool. She then has Plantiveau drain the pool to retrieve the lost object and subsequently find the dead body. When the pool is drained, however, there is no body to be found.
By now Christina is beside herself with guilt and fear. Then strange things begin to happen. A student says that he saw Michel at the school. The suit that he had been wearing when he was killed is delivered from the dry cleaners. A key that had been in the suit is for an apartment in a nearby hotel. Christina, who had a weak heart to begin with, begins to suffer even more physically as well as psychologically. She begins to fear that Michel is still alive and playing his cruelest game ever.
“Diabolique” AKA “Les Diaboliques” was released in 1955 and was directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. It is a French psychological thriller with horror and noir elements. The film was based on the 1952 novel “She Who Was No More” or “Celle qui n'était plus" by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejec.
The general feel of the movie reminded me of” Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte” 1964 and “Crucible of Horror” 1971. I hate to say it, but I even see some plot points used in William Castle’s film “The Tingler” 1959. In reality, a lot of the movie’s elements have been done before, but not with such suspense, or in French. The plot may be slightly pedestrian, but the cinematography is very noir. There are enough noir elements to qualify it as such. It has also been likened to Alfred Hitchcock’s style of movie making. In fact, Director Clouzot bought the film rights before Hitchcock could. Clouzot’s adaptation of the story was inspiration for Hitchcock’s “Psycho” 1960.
Many talk about the elephant in the room being the relationship between the two women. Although the book may have incorporated lesbian elements, here it is more of a power dynamic where Nicole assumes the role of master to Christina as subservient. Nicole replaces Michel as the dominant in the relationship. It is an interesting and suspenseful film with a twist at the end.
Vera Clouzot, who plays Christina, was the wife of Director Henri-Georges Clouzot. Vera only acted in three films, all of them directed by her husband. She died of a heart attack in 1960.