Cadavres en vacances

While the French NV was imposing the cult of youth,Jacqueline Audry , the only woman director before Agnès Varda ,made two spinsters the heroines of her film .

She makes us feel the generation gap at the turning point of the early sixties ; the old ladies are ridiculed by the young ones ,but when a series of strange murders occur in the "Beau Séjour" hotel , one of the old maids reveals herself as smart as Miss Marple .

Two thirds of the movie are a delightful murder mystery comedy , complete with the murder party dear to Agatha Christie , the incompetent superintendent (Noel Roquevert does not portray a commissaire Maigret), the hotel where everybody's a suspect. Suzanne Dehelly as the lady detective and her clueless sister Jeanne Fusier-Gir who will laugh best in the end are a marvelous pair.

Unfortunately , the movie considerably loses steam in its last third which is too hurried for comfort ,as far as the explanation is concerned ,and includes a pointless heavy-handed scene in the casino.