When Boileau-Narcejac sent their manuscript to editors ,it was refused several times:little did they know that it would be an international best -seller ,spawning one of HG Clouzot's most famous films and three American remakes ,not counting the shameless rip-offs such as Curtis Harrington 's "games " .There was a time when the initial title ("celle qui n'était plus " =she who was no more") was replaced by Clouzot 's ("les diaboliques" ) on the covers of the books, the other only mentioned in brackets and small letters(1) ;nowadays they reverse the process.
Actually , the original situation was never kept : there were bisexual / lesbian undertones in its conclusion ,not suitable for a 1955 audience ;hence the change of the "victim" .
"Reflections of murder " is faithful like a dog to Clouzot's screenplay (much more than to the book) ,except for one thing : it kept the immoral denouement of the book , suppressing the deus ex machina represented by cop Fichet .But they astutely kept the little boy's final sentence ,giving the last picture an eerie feeling .
Aside from that , the story is not far from a scene -for -scene remake ; on the plus side ,the Hackett/Weld/Waterston (the latter cast against type) is convincing .But the supporting characters are not: the tenants of Weld's flat are far from being as colorful as Clouzot's ;all the humor seems to have gone down the drain (or should I say the tub) : dwarf Grumpy is no match for the glug-glugs of the plumbing which infuriate the teacher listening to a radio contest ; ditto for the cop who replaces the private when the trunk leaks ... And although Wasterton humiliates his wife before the students ("make her eat" ) , there's nothing of the seedy boarding-school (on the contrary ,it's a valuable property ,which is the main motive of the murderers),of the filthy atmosphere of the black and white film noir : the pool is so muddy that a student says : "it's like chocolate down under" .
That said ,although it does not equal Clouzot's classic , it 's much more successful than the horrible 1996 remake ; the version starring Melissa Gilbert ("house of secrets") ,on the other hand, kept the proper nouns ,located the action in New Orleans ,with a smart use of mardi gras carnival and is watchable.
(1) They did the same for " d 'entre les morts" (from among the dead ) and the French title of Hitchcock's "vertigo" ,based on the novel, "sueurs froides".(cold sweat)
Actually , the original situation was never kept : there were bisexual / lesbian undertones in its conclusion ,not suitable for a 1955 audience ;hence the change of the "victim" .
"Reflections of murder " is faithful like a dog to Clouzot's screenplay (much more than to the book) ,except for one thing : it kept the immoral denouement of the book , suppressing the deus ex machina represented by cop Fichet .But they astutely kept the little boy's final sentence ,giving the last picture an eerie feeling .
Aside from that , the story is not far from a scene -for -scene remake ; on the plus side ,the Hackett/Weld/Waterston (the latter cast against type) is convincing .But the supporting characters are not: the tenants of Weld's flat are far from being as colorful as Clouzot's ;all the humor seems to have gone down the drain (or should I say the tub) : dwarf Grumpy is no match for the glug-glugs of the plumbing which infuriate the teacher listening to a radio contest ; ditto for the cop who replaces the private when the trunk leaks ... And although Wasterton humiliates his wife before the students ("make her eat" ) , there's nothing of the seedy boarding-school (on the contrary ,it's a valuable property ,which is the main motive of the murderers),of the filthy atmosphere of the black and white film noir : the pool is so muddy that a student says : "it's like chocolate down under" .
That said ,although it does not equal Clouzot's classic , it 's much more successful than the horrible 1996 remake ; the version starring Melissa Gilbert ("house of secrets") ,on the other hand, kept the proper nouns ,located the action in New Orleans ,with a smart use of mardi gras carnival and is watchable.
(1) They did the same for " d 'entre les morts" (from among the dead ) and the French title of Hitchcock's "vertigo" ,based on the novel, "sueurs froides".(cold sweat)