I jumped away from the classics yesterday to mention May but I want to head back into that territory again today. Up until the night before last I had never seen Les Diaboliques. Henri-Georges Clouzot classic 1955 thriller is an amazing example of how a movie that shows incredible restraint can still have you on the edge of the seat.

In Les Diabolique Véra Clouzot stars as Christina Delassalle is a former nun and now teacher at a small private boarding school that she has funded. Her husband, Michel (Paul Meurisse) is having an affair with another of the teachers Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret). He is charismatic and abusive with both his wife and his mistress as well as treating the other staff poorly. Christina can not bring herself to divorce Michel as it would be a sin. After Nicole shows up for class wearing sunglasses in order to cover up her bruised eye she starts to convince Nicole that they need to do away with Michel. Nicole wants nothing to do with it until Michel forces himself on her after supper.

Under Nicole’s prodding the two hatch a plan to drown Michel in Nicole’s bathtub and then they will dispose of the body in the school’s pool with the plan that everyone will just figure he drowned during the night in a drunken stupor. The plan goes off without a hitch until the body disappears from the pool. The two women have to deal with either Michel still being alive, a hidden thief who has stolen the body or perhaps even worse in that Michel is now a ghost who is haunting them.

When the credits of Les Diaboliques roll a request is made not to spoil this movie for later audiences and I shall follow this.

“Don’t be devils. Don’t ruin the interest your friends could take in this film. Don’t tell them what you saw. Thank you for them.”

Watching it now these many years and many movies later the whole twist really did not come as a surprise but I can imagine the stir at the time that this great thriller would have created. For me though what makes Les Diaboliques is the way it is able to build tension. Plenty of time is given for both women to first decide and accept what must be done. Christina is left alone to wait for Michel to show up and then when he does the film does not jump immediately into the drowning. After Michel has been murdered a fair amount of time is given to the women disposing the body and then after they do place Michel’s body in the pool tension is allowed to build while the both women wait for the body to be found. The climax of the movie is also the most nail biting scene that I have seen in a long time. I was sure how it was going to end and I was sure that a 1955 film would not resort to a jump scare but I was still sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to see just what was going to happen.

Les Diaboliques is one of the most influential love triangle thrillers of all time. Its basic story and themes have been used over and over again. I would give anything to be able to go back and watch this film with the initial audiences but even though that is not possible I can not help but recommend it enough.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for Day 18 of the 31 Days of Horror.