Les plaisirs dangereux

A businessman whose wife has gone to a resort hotel with her friend is brought a newspaper by his secretary. She points to a story about an unidentified murdered prostitute and another who was seen taking off in a Ferrari. The secretary says bitterly that prostitutes can afford Ferraris now, but she cannot. The businessman starts reading the article, and sees that the Ferrari described sounds like his. And the woman in it sounds like his wife.

Very much a movie of its time, this drama slips back and forth between the investigations of the husband and his friend and flashbacks to what the two women got up to at the resort. It's a story of vain, dissatisfied people with no morals but plenty of money and no compunction about using it to get what they want, despite the harm done to others, or to themselves.

The extremely attractive Raf Vallone has far too little screen time, and the movie belongs to Annie Girardot, perfectly cast as the tricky wife who appears far more virtuous than her friend, but who is even more corrupt.