Peter van Eyck is so drunk he almost gets run over by a car. Fortunately, Daniel Gélin grabs him, then drives him to his estate in van Eyck's Cadillac convertible. Van Eyck offers him a job, and Gélin accepts. Then van Eyck's wife, Michèle Morgan tries to fire him, but fails. Meanwhile, van Eyck gets ousted from his position at his company, and decides to kill himself. As a joke, he cancels the clause in his insurance policy that lets his beneficiary collect even though he kills himself; so Mme. Morgan devises an elaborate plan to convince the authorities that he was killed by his former business associates.
It's tough, sexy, French film noir, with Gélin hot for stony-faced femme fatale Morgan, while carrying on an affair with Michèle Mercier in her first screen role. Everything seems to be working out according to Mme. Morgan's sadistic little plan.... and then inspector Bernard Blier comes to investigate the killing.
There's little that's novel in Denys de La Patellière's film; he was never considered a great auteur, but was a solid commercial film maker in the pre-Nouvelle Vague era. The parts are put together well in that gloomy magical-realism way, the actors are top-notch, and if it runs a trifle long at just shy of two hours, I didn't notice.
