There is a fine line between revealing elements of plot for the sake of discussion in reviews and straight up spoilers. For action flicks or predictable kid movies, this isn't a huge concern, but for the mystery/suspense/horror genre, it can ruin your experience to even have the slightest inkling of what might happen next. Les Diaboliques is such a movie, so I'll try to outline the premise as vaguely as I can. A woman and her husband's mistress plot to murder the husband, but after the crime is committed the body mysteriously disappears. Sound intriguing enough for you?
The best way to describe this movie is as a French Alfred Hitchcock movie. In fact, Hitchcock had originally made an offer for the rights to the novel Celle Qui N'etait Pas (The Woman Who Has No More) that Les Diaboliques was based on, but Clouzot outbid him and ended up making a film that is said to have helped inspire Psycho.
What makes Les Diaboliques so effective is its strict adherence to its recipe, allowing the film to slowly cook with mystery and suspense rather than cheap thrills to grab our interest and by the end you're fully satisfied. The build up of the mystery is so intense that we can feel the two women's anxiety. I couldn't help but be lost with them and ask myself, "WTF is going on?!" That can also be one of this film's downfalls though. For as good as Les Diaboliques smells, we are never able to dip our finger in to steal a taste of just how good it really is. While the mystery and intrigue is there, there are very few moments in the middle to release any tension. It's just one big tease. You'll either like that about it or you won't. I happened to appreciate it yet be mildly frustrated at the same time.
Grade: B+
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