Double infemmenity

Les Diaboliques

(1955)

A very Hitchcockian French noir, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot--it's no surprise that the authors of the source novel, Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, also wrote the source for Vertigo.

His wife, played by Véra Clouzot (yes, the director's wife), has a bad ticker; his mistress (Simone Signoret) has really noisy plumbing; he (Paul Meurisse) is just plain bad--so bad that wife and mistress conspire to murder him. And then things get weird.

A gripping film for about 80 minutes; problem is the third act is too long and too slow, giving you plenty of time and opportunity to figure out where it's going, which is a shame.