La dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil

Thrilling and suspenseful film about a woman must find out about a crime she is implicated , to prove her innocence and exposing the question about whether the starring is hysterically crazy or is being manipulated by others. An English secretary named Dany (Samantha Eggar) with an international advertising in Paris is asked by her Chief Michael Caldwell (Oliver Reed) to work overnight at his house . Next day , she agrees to see him off the airport with his wife (Stephane Audran) , then drive his car back to the house . But heading in the wrong direction she impulsively drives on towards the Riviera . Then a series of chance encounters with perfect strangers, who claim that they recognise her , begin to blemish her ideal weekend. Now, more than anything in the world, Dany wants to see the sea ; and she goes joyriding along the way but, a strange noise coming from the boot is a harbinger of bad luck. She visits a seaside town she swears she's never been to, but everyone knows her name. Is the lady in the car starting to lose her mind? .Soon, things go wrong and get serious. Her first mistake was getting into the car.

Intriguing if overelaborate thriller shot on the sun-kissed French outdoors , this is a fairly effective thriller that really keeps the audience guessing and in which our protagonist becomes involved in twisted incidents and nighymarish happenings . That include encounters with various strangers who apparently recognise her , assault in the restroom at a service station and interlude with an enigmatic hitchhiker and the discovery of a body in the trunk of the car . Then when a body turns up in the boot of the car, she is the lead suspect in a murder she knows nothing about . Is she going crazy?. It has a strong visual style, also very reminiscent of the Sixties . Echoes of Psyco proliferate including a visit to an old dark house , but the tortuous mystifications and ponderings wear out their welcome long before the final surprising explanations . Samantha Eggar gives a nice acting as a meekc, myopic, and sentimental secretary with an international advertising agency in Paris . And Oliver Reed is very adequate and so sinisterly smooth that you know he's up to no good . While Stephane Audran is fine as as the glacially neurotic wife and she makes one wonder wistfully as she equally played in her films with Claude Chabrol. They're well accompanied by a good support cast such as : John McEnery , Martine Kelly , Bernard Fresson and Marcel Bozzuffi . It had a France Belgium remake (2015) with same title directed by Joann Sfarr with Freya Mavor , Benjamin Biolay , Elio Germano , Stacy Martin.

The picture was professionally directed by Anatole Litvak , though some confusing , at times . Litvak was born in Ukraine and stayed in Germany working . Anatole moved to France and directed Mayerling with Charles Boyer , Danielle Darrieux . His first Hollywood movie was The Woman I Love 1937 , and made a wide variety of subjects , from sophisticated comedy as Tovarich 1937 to historical drama as Anastasia 1956 , romance as All this and Heaven Too 1940 , crime drama as Dr Clitterhouse with Edward G Robinson and Humphrey Bogart and two tough thrillers starring John Garfield : Castle on the Hudson 1940 and Out of the Fog 1941 . Having become an American citizen , Litvak enlisted in the US army and collaborated with William Wyler in "Why we fight" series of WWII documentaries. Arguably his best films were the Thriller " Sorry wrong the Number" and the splendid psychological drama "The Snake Pit" 1948 , Hollywood's first attempt to seriously examine the treatment of mental illness . Rating : 6.5/10 . Well worth watching . Essential and indispensable seeing for thriller/mystery enthusiasts.

Samantha Eggar goes to employer Oliver Reed's home to do some work before he flies off with his wife, Stephane Audran, for a vacation. She drops the couple off at the airport, with instructions to drive the big Mercury convertible back to the office. But she has never handled a car like this, and takes a wrong turn. She finds herself traveling south, and decides to travel down to the Cote D'Azur. But odd things keep happening, like John McEnery, who plops himself into her car and charms her into sleeping with her, all the people who insist that she's been been there the day before, traveling to Paris. When a corpse turns up suddenly in the trunk with a rifle, things shift from bizarre to deadly.

Anatole Litvak's last movie is a stylish thriller, well served by the cast and with lots of shots to show off the scenery thanks to DP Claude Renoir. The long monologue that explains what was going on is, I suppose, a necessity, if a trifle long-winded. It's a good ending to a long career for Litvak, who studied theater in his native Ukraine ad Russia, made films in Germany, France, and America, and died in 1974 at the age of 72.

Secretary at a Paris fashion agency borrows her boss's car for a weekend drive down the Mediterranean coast, but her lighthearted holiday is fraught with trouble after she continually runs into complete strangers who appear to know her. U.S.-French co-production adapted by Sébastien Japrisot from his novel, with assistance from director Anatole Litvak, is beautifully designed and mounted, with attractive photography by Claude Renoir in mod-popping shades. Samantha Eggar has never been better (nor lovelier) than she is here, confusedly finding herself in turbulent situations yet determined to figure out what's really going on. Japrisot and Litvak lay on the paranoia undercurrent fairly thickly, though they also play fair with the viewer and give us a journey well-wrought with engrossing entanglements. It's also one of the chicest mysteries to mark the end of the 1960s, with gorgeous locales, cars and costumes to hold the attention whenever the script gets too chatty. **1/2 from ****

This is okay and Samantha Eggar very good but is just not sinister enough. My print was not a very good one which didn't help but I didn't feel particularly engaged early on and although for me it brightened up when John McEnry comes in, his character is too enigmatic to seriously help one's involvement in trying to work out just what the story is. The final denouement and cumbersome and involved flashback details as outlined by Oliver Reed did not annoy me as it has some (I've watched many a giallo where the 'explanation' is more ludicrous than the earlier tale) indeed it struck me as more interesting. There just wasn't enough actually happening in the bulk of the film for one to get one's teeth into. I suppose in some giallo these gaps would be filled with rising bosoms and falling dresses but here alas were left with the best of efforts by Ms Eggar, not particularly well dressed at all.

This movie had high pretensions.Sebastien Japrisot is a poor man's Boileau Narcejac whose scripts are far-fetched and fall apart at every twist.Stephane Audran's presence could give a Claude Chabrol feel.And the heroine was Samantha Eggar, of "the collector" fame (1965).Add Oliver Reed and a director,Anatole Litvak, who succeeded brilliantly in suspense in former days (sorry wrong number,1948)

Eggar has been framed and she tries to understand as the plot thickens.Would her boss (Reed) do very bad things behind her back?Don't expect "les diaboliques".The ending is trite and disappointing.

Anatole Litvak called it a day after this thriller.The sixties had been pretty disastrous for him,encompassing Françoise Sagan (Aimez-vous Brahms?/Goodbye again) and absurd "historical" thriller(the night of the generals)