Les magiciennes

I'm sorry not to join the chorus of praises for I'm a big fan of Boileau-Narcejac's books : "les magiciennes "is ,for my money,one of their weakest. I had guessed the denouement halfway through.when I read it.....In fact the writers combine their "the dead may not be dead"trick ( "celle qui n'était plus" which spawned the famous "les diaboliques" ) with their "second woman/double " ("d'entre les morts",transferred to the screen as masterful "vertigo" by Hitchcock ) ; in 1960,it was old hat .The writers had begun to copy themselves.

Jacques Riberolles lacks charisma as the lead and his folie a deux with one of the twins suffers accordingly ; Ginette Leclerc ,a veteran of the golden years of the French cinema overplays ; the Kessler twins are pretty and are the main asset of the movie ; the sleights of hand of the cast and credits promised good things ; but a flat direction does not help ; apart from "diabolique" and "vertigo" I suggest the Boileau-Narcejac buff choose "faces in the dark" (Eady ) or "les louves" (Saslavsky)

A man, Peter, joins a traveling show dominated by a middle-aged magician who uses his grown twin daughters in his act. Peter falls in love with one of the daughters. The other daughter meets an untimely end, and the father must then employ mirrors to continue to effect his illusions, and Peter must struggle with his internal doubts as to which daughter, in fact, is still living. No, the answer is not as patent as one might think.

I viewed this film (under the Double Deception title) once, on television, circa 1970, and I believe the English was dubbed in. I cannot speak to directing, acting and writing in any detail after such a long time, but the fact that the film stuck so strongly in my mind is an indication that it was very effective. I remember the somber tone and becoming engaged in Peter's agonizing quest, not only to determine the truth, but also to discover himself by virtue of his response to what he learns. I had sought in vain to find evidence of this film in Maltin's guide. I had nearly decided I had imagined it before finding it listed here. I see that it is so obscure that five persons have not yet voted on it. I feel it is well worthy of attention, and I do hope this film has not been lost to nonpreservation. This film should be resurrected for those of us who adore film noire. (Does anyone not?)