La doppia morte

A painful melodrama of a beautiful gigolo (Claude Titre quite dull) who paints women and make love with them, one being much older than him and marries her. All the actors are playing badly, the story and dialogues are boring, and there is no atmosphere and no rhythm. This Max Pecas first movie is even worse than the bad movies with Robert Hossein. Flee.

"Le cercle vicieux" tells the story of a young and broke Parisian artist who spends more time seducing women than working on his paintings. One day, a wealthy German woman who enjoys his service as a gigolo mentions marriage. However, once married, things start to go wrong between her and this homme fatal. This French film noir and its characters are full of cynicism and the dialogues are so explicit and subtle at the same time that they might sometimes seem unclear for non-native speakers. I was skeptical before watching this gem as most reviews found the movie boring, but trust me it will please any film noir lover, especially if you can understand French.

First effort by the notorious Max Pecas ;in his long career ,art was the least of his worries.He made pornographic movies (let 's forget them) and coarse comedies (about squaddies/grunts and vacationists).

Against all odds ,"Le Cercle Vicieux"is watchable :this is a suspense story ,à la Boileau-Narcejac ,derivative but entertaining: a gigolo marries an older woman for her dough;however, he has always an affair with a young girl.The wife has a face-lift to look younger and prettier,but it's the straw that breaks the camel's back:the marriage is on the rocks .The young mistress is killed in a car crash and the dead body is impossible to identify (? nothing is told about it).So she could easily pass for his wife .So what about killing her and burying the corpse?But a stepdaughter is to be reckoned with..

The male lead,Claude Titre (later cast as Bob Morane for a TV series) fell into oblivion after the sixties;Charles Aznavour provides the music and it's his sister ,Aïda ,a poor man's Edith Piaf ,who sings over the cast and credits .

Like this? try this...

"Une Manche et La Belle" (Henri Verneuil,1957 ,the screenplay of which is very similar to that of "Le Cercle Vicieux ")