I must confess to never having read anything by the American crime novelist Nancy Rutledge. It is generally considered that her best work is 'Emily will know' which is given the Gallic treatment here by Denys de la Patilliere. He has also written the adaptation in collaboration with Roland Laudenbach with whom he had worked on his previous film.
French cinema has always been more about character than plot so this 'psychological thriller' is eminently suitable.
In this enclosed world Jean is sponging off his wife Isabelle and literally frightens to death his mistrustful father-in law so as to guarantee the flow of funds. Having committed the perfect murder he then decides to eliminate his wife but there is always the unexpected.........
The casting here is spot-on. Jean-Claude Pascal is superb as a charming, self-obsessed and narcissistic sociopath. The type of man in fact that women find it almost impossible to resist! As his lover Adele we have the wonderfully enigmatic and mesmerising Jeanne Moreau. She is as always excellent but this is her fifteenth film and one cannot help but wonder how her career would have panned out had not Louis Malle entered her life. The performance that impresses the most is that of Danielle Darrieux as Isabelle the wife. She typifies how a first rate actress can make the most of what in lesser hands would be an utterly thankless role. Stalwart Jean Debucourt, who never seemed to be out of work, does a great turn as Isabelle's bed-ridden father.
Technically the film is faultless with seamless editing by the Isnardons, subtly used score by Maurice Le Roux and plenty of noirish touches by cinematographer Henri Alekan.
This is not the work of a great director but an extremely capable one. It is his second film and is certainly an improvement on his first, 'Les Aristocrates'. It marks the beginning of a very good phase for him but from the mid-1960's, the quality of his films, alas, shows a distinct decline.
Review of Le salaire du péché
