movie film review | chris tookey
 
     
     
 

Les Diaboliques / The Fiends / Diabolique


     
  Les Diaboliques / The Fiends / Diabolique Review
Tookey's Rating
7 /10
 
Average Rating
8.77 /10
 
Starring
Nicole Horner ......... Simone Signoret , Christina Delasalle ... Vera Clouzot, Michel Delasalle ...... Paul Meurisse
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Directed by: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Written by: Henri-Georges Clouzot, G. Geronimi from novel The Woman Who Was, by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac

 
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Released: 1954
   
Genre: HORROR
FOREIGN
THRILLER
   
Origin: France
   
Length: 114
 
 


 

The wife (Vera Clouzot, pictured left) and mistress (Simone Signoret, pictured right) of a cruel headmaster (Paul Meurisse) conspire to murder him, but no sooner have they done so than the body vanishes.

Reviewed by Chris Tookey


Classic, horrific thriller with a plot twist that caught a 50s audience unawares. Much imitated, the film is not so shocking now, but it remains gripping, strong on atmosphere and unsettlingly misanthropic. Technically, it’s superb: expertly directed for suspense by Henri-Georges (Wages of Fear ) Clouzot. This is one of the few horror films to have impressed the critics on release - possibly because it was made in French. At any rate, it shared the New York Film Critics’ Award for Best Foreign Film with Vittorio De Sica’s Umberto D.
“I sought only to amuse myself and little child who sleeps in all our hearts— the child who hides her head under the bed-covers and begs, ‘Daddy, Daddy, frighten me.’”
(Henri-Georges Clouzot)

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