Les intrigantes

Set mostly in a theater right after the death (accident? Murder?) of its rich patron, "Les Intrigantes" is reminiscent of earlier Hollywod murder mysteries like, for example, "Murder At The Vanities" (1934). There is just as much comedy as there is mystery, and there is also a kinky sequence where a man and a woman first struggle for possession of a letter and then kiss passionately. The film is most notable for the early roles of two actors who went on to become international superstars: Jeanne Moreau as the wife of the director and chief suspect (she dominates the second section of the film), and Louis De Funes, with an unusual amount of hair, as the playwriter. Pretty good entertainment. **1/2 out of 4.

In the forties and the fifties,Henry Decoin's forte was the film noir:"non coupable" which remains ignored today might be his masterpiece,but there are other interesting works such as "la vérité sur Bébé Donge"or "les inconnus dans la maison" .The almost documentary approach of "Razzia sur la chnouff" (about drugs) seems modern even today.And some works which are difficult to see ("Maléfices" "Bonnes à tuer" and "tous peuvent me tuer" probably deserve to be watched).

"Les intrigantes " belongs to Decoin's films noirs.An extremely good cast (Jeanne Moreau,Raymond Pellegrin and Raymond Rouleau)is very appealing.It strongly displays Hitchcock's influence ,much more than his contemporaries Clouzot and Duvivier: Moreau's face reflected on Pellegrin's glasses is a quotation from "Strangers on a train" (1951) and the use of a theater during the whole movie and for the final sequences recall "stage fright" (1950).Rouleau plays a theater owner who is accused of pushing his associate from a foot-bridge above the stage.But the script is not really good.Moreau's and Pellegrin's (her lover) attitudes do not make much sense.Why ,for instance,does Moreau hide her husband in a mental hospital when he's about to be arrested ? Even if she wants to put him off the scent,it will not delude him for long anyway.

Louis de Funes's fans can be interested in his small part of a lousy playwright.He is not the comic relief though,this is reserved to a man called "Carcassone" whose interventions are irritating.