writers_reign Henri Decoin and Danielle Darrieux made some wonderful movies together whilst they were married (1935 - 41) and Bonnes a tuer shows that divorce did nothing to destroy their peculiar magic. Top-billed Darrieux has only marginally the lion's share of screen time and for reasons best known to himself - or the Front Office - Decoin used one French Actress (Corinne Calvet) who had been resident in Hollywood since 1949 and made the bulk of her films there and two Italians (Miriam de San Servolo, the real life sister of Claretta Petacci who was hanged with her lover Mussolini at the end of the war) and Lila Rocco as the three other women in the life of Michel Auclair, who has gathered them together for dinner in his penthouse overlooking the Champs Elysee and thoughtfully weakened the safety barrier. The suspense comes from knowing, via the opening scene, that SOMEONE is lying on the sidewalk wondering who has the oxygen concession and we want to know who, natch. Master that he is Decoin begins as the camera dollys in to the empty dining room of the penthouse resplendent with crisp napery, cutlery and glassware and ends the film with a dolly OUT of the same scene. Within this main flashback are others as three of the four women remember incidents from their past with Auclair and Decoin skillfully racks up the tension throughout but more so after Darrieux discovers that the safety barrier has been tampered with. This has everything the discerning viewer wants from a film and the mystery is why, with films as good as this being turned out in the mid fifties those cowboys from Cahiers were ever allowed to perpetrate their ANTI-films a couple of years later but the good news is that the new wavelet soon became merely a trickle and lives on today only in the work of Erich - come-and-let's-watch-paint-dry Rohmer.

dbdumonteil She was there one minute Lying in a pool of herselfAnd then she was gone the next With a twisted neck.O she fell from the roof to the ground....A crowd gathers around the building as the cops shout " move along!" .Someone fell from the terrace of "Larry" 's luxury flat. Larry (Michel Auclair)had gathered for a formal occasion his ex-wife (Darrieux),his wife (Corinne Calvet),his fiancée and his mistress.An ominous stormy evening in a chic apartment with champagne served by a Chinese butler.There was a bad moon on the rise;it seemed that someone was going to get killed tonight.But which of the four women?The ex-wife?She crossed a lot of peopleSome she called friendsShe thought she'd live foreverBut forever always ends.Darrieux portrays a painter who remained loyal and true to her friends,which her ex-husband did not.The fiancée? She used to live the life she used To live life with a vengeance And the chosen would dance The chosen would dance in attendanceThe fiancée is a spoiled child,she thinks that her dad's money can buy her anything .She's pregnant by a student who disappeared but she won't care if Larry passes for the father in her folk's eyes.The wife? She used to have style She used to have style and to use itAnd they say it turned badWhen the truth came around and she refused itShe married Larry just because thanks to him,an unscrupulous journalist,her false suicide made the headlines.(It's thoroughly credible:a French actress did that in 1947) Like Larry, would do anything to get fortune and fame.The mistress? They did not find no killerand they did not find no note.Maggy is a shady lady,who seems to blackmail Larry ;he' d like to recover a receipt she owns.This is a fine film noir by Henri Decoin,which does not equal his best in the field ("non Coupable" "La Vérité sur Bébé Donge" ),but where the suspense is sustained till the very end and its unexpected twist.The flashbacks are introduced in an unusual aggressive way.They begin with bells: they herald a wedding but they sound like a toll.Darrieux and Auclair would team up again in Périer's "Meurtres en 45 tours" (1960)Many lines of this comment were taken from the lyrics of Richard Thompson's extraordinarily gloomy song "Did she jump " on his "Shoot out the lights' majestic album (1982).