La febbre del possesso

Prolific crime writer, Rene Raymond, wrote over 80 thrillers under the pseudonym, James Hadley Chase. These dime novels were extremely popular in the 1940s and 1950s, particularly in England and France. One of the least known and least promising of Chase's tales would appear to be "The Sucker Punch", but Henri Verneuil turned it into this excellent movie, which not only has the advantage of his engrossing screenplay (written in collaboration with Annette Wademant and Francois Boyer) but his inspired, powerful direction. The acting of the stars, Henri Vidal, Mylene Demongeot, Isa Miranda and Alfred Adam, cannot be faulted; while the photography by Christian Matras is, as we might expect from Matras, absolutely outstanding.

"What Price Murder?" suffers from a way, way, way too sluggish first half where almost nothing happens and which could potentially cause viewers to shut the film off early: it largely appears to be a travelogue of the French Riviera and the Italian Venice, but for that purpose it would have benefitted majorly from being shot in color. The film does get better in the second half, when it embraces the pulpiness (and the bleakness) of James Hadley Chase's story: there are some interesting plot developments and one "bit of business", in particular, involving a phone call and a recording machine, that I would honestly describe as brilliant. Still, that is not enough to recover from the sluggishness of the first half. Mylene Demongeot is very good here and shows again why she was arguably Bardot's most serious French rival at that time. ** out of 4.

An unscrupulous fortune hunter (Henri Vidal), recently married to a wealthy older woman (Isa Miranda), is seduced by his wife's sexy secretary (Mylène Demongeot) but the lovers' plans for murder soon get complicated by the secrets all three keep in a twisty thriller adapted from James Hadley Chase's "The Sucker Punch". The prolific pulp novelist's work was heavily influenced by James M. Cain and here it's THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE skillfully blended with a heavy dose of Billy Wilder's SUNSET BLVD. It's all there; the attractive older woman bringing a gigolo into her rococo mansion and buying him suits, grabbing his hand at a wrestling match, and pulling him down for a vampiric kiss as if Betty Schafer had convinced Joe Gillis to marry and murder Norma Desmond. Despite the familiar plot machinations, there's enough surprises to keep things fresh and the location filming on the French Riviera gives this cold-blooded noir an "evil under the sun" aura. The stunning Mylène Demongeot's lovely but lethal sex kitten is impossible to resist and it's easy to see how any man would kill for this seductive mix of Marilyn Monroe & Brigitte Bardot.

Henri Vidal works for a bank and has a chance to chisel some francs from rich Isa Miranda. When it turns out she knows, he turns it on its head, and eventually she proposes to him. Vidal, however, is already having an affair with her secretary, Mylène Demongeot, who is mulling a proposal from her other lover, a rich guy. Vidal and Mlle. Demongeot fantasize about killing his wife and enjoying the money, but two people like them could never get away with it. Then Vidal comes up with a perfect murder scheme.

It's a handsome little policier co-written and directed by Henri Verneuill; he was not a great talent, but he was a redoubtable craftsman, and this movie, from a novel by James Hadley Chase, has lots of twists and turns, with an ending that surprised me.... and of course, seemed inevitable afterwards.

Found it on utube, had to locate the eng subs on opensubtitles org. Timed perfectly, allowed this non french speaking merkin to enjoy a terrific murder mystery on a saturday afternoon. Enjoy yourself, indulge in some foreign b&w films with great plots instead of the nonsensical blow everything up stuff being put out today. This one has a real plot, one that will keep you guessing until the end.