“The Great Suspense Film That Shocked The World…And Became a Classic” is the tag line for the very, very infamous French film noir Les Diaboliques (1955), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, that was the inspiration for no less than three remakes of much lesser quality. Clouzot was a top director of French film noir during the 1940s and ’50s, and is most renowned internationally for La Salaire de la Peur (The Wages of Fear) 1952, which made international stars of Yves Montand and Charles Vanel. Vanel is a star of Les Diaboliques, playing Inspector Ficher, who investigates the disappearance of Michel Delasalle (unctuously played by Paul Meurisse) from a surburban boys’ school. Simone Signoret stars as Nicole Horner, a teacher who was a former mistress of Delasalle, and Vera Clouzot (the director’s wife) is Christina Delasalle, wife of the headmaster. Christina, the owner of the school, is constantly humiliated by her brutish husband, especially when he takes up with women who work at the school. Nicole and Christina realize they have more in common than Michel’s bad treatment of them—they detest him so much that they plot his disappearance and murder. Their bonding also suggests a possible lesbian relationship, which is never depicted on screen.

The women decide to go off with Michel on a weekend away from the school. Perhaps Michel is thinking of a ménage à trois with his wife and ex-mistress. They arrive at Nicole’s home in the country and promptly get

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