Käärme

Edmond T Greville's swansong.It displays some qualities.

This director knows how to create an atmosphere .It was the main interest of his former works ("Menaces" and "Le Port Du Désir").here his depiction of a gloomy island is not bad .A half wit (Roland Lesaffre)goes on repeating "the Chinese are coming" -he actually plays no part in the plot);a seedy school where even the blackboards seem to be one hundred years old ;a ship cemetery where ships come home to die ("they should be wrecked before" says the schoolteacher's wife);a headmaster who treats his pupils like a military man;the brats aping his alcoholic wife...

But although the writer is Frederic Dard ,the detective plot does not work.The husband/wife/mistress subject has been treated so many times that Greville cannot renew it.The "unexpected " twist is not original at all. Dard did much better with a similar subject with Robert Hossein's "Toi Le Venin".

Magali Noel is best remembered for her part in "Fellini-Satyricon."