La Dixième femme de Barbe Bleue

This little film is among the best of Georges Sanders performances, where he is as exquisite as usual, as he was in Albert Lewin's features. This cynical and ruthless old dandy character suits him like a glove. The typical character that built his legend, an unforgettable actor. Landru, his character, is of course inspired by the notorious french serial killer from the forties. And, most of all, this movie is the best one made by W Lee Wilder who rather directed grade Z science fiction or thriller movies. This film, shown without the director's name, I would have never bet a cent on him. I even doubt that he actually made this film. It looks like an Edgard Ulmer's film instead, and certainly not W Lee Wilder, although some of his films were not totally dull either, crime flicks I mean, not Science fiction. Yes this is the W Lee Wilder's masterpiece.

My only complaint about this film is that the anti-hero, Henri Landru, is played by George Sanders. Now Sanders was a fine actor...but with his melodious British accent, he seemed oddly out of place because his character was supposed to be French...and everyone else in the film has a French accent! Still, considering all I liked, I can live with this.

When the story begins, Henri meets a very mercenary woman (Corinne Calvet) and she sweet-talks a lot of money out of him. But he's not a wealthy man and cannot afford such a 'lady' and instead of just dumping her, he goes on a killing spree in order to become a rich man and to be able to afford her! So, again and again, he finds widows and manages to trick them out of their money and he kills them...and in a few cases brutally so. What's next? See the film.

Henri Landru could have been a pathetic and thoroughly stupid character...and that would have harmed the film. Fortunately, while he is at first an old fool, he doesn't stay stupid forever and his cleverness and persistence make the story interesting...as were some of the murders...which were amazingly grisly for the time. Well worth seeing and an exciting tale.

Look what you have-you've got George Sanders sleepwalking through the roll of Landru (and he sleepwalks so hysterically) and you've got Billy Wilder's brother directing (I guess Billy had other fish to fry at the time) and on top of all this you've got Corinne Calvet looking desperately alluring. The best part of this whole thing is watching George gleefully dusting off the old babes. The mundane dialogue is delivered in campy style by George at all times. Definetly and acquired taste but oooh la! la!

This is quite a stylish suspense, which would not have been the same if not in black and white. George Sanders portrays a middle-aged man losing his head for a mercantile young temptress (a very good performance by Corinne Calvet), and finding himself driven into a series of cold-blooded murders. Sanders makes the film what it is with his convincing portrayal of an obsessed and relentless character. If not for the dull ending, this would have been a great film noir; however, it does not live up to Sanders' charismatic and sarcastic appearance, which seems to be squeezed into a predictable thriller. Nevermind, still quite enjoyable. 6/10.

This one had me scratching my head. It's directed by Billy Wilder's brother and written by his nephew. I wondered if someone thought they were making a comedy, but Billy had gotten all the sense of humor in the family. Either that, or someone thought that Chaplin's MONSIEUR VERDOUX was too silly.

George Sanders plays his usual faux-charming role, but without any wit in the writing, he's very dull. He's in love with a young singer, but all she's interested in is money, so he decides to kill other women so he can give their jewelry to her. This goes on for a while in a manner that is neither horrific nor funny.

This movie was banned in Finland. I'm not sure why they bothered.