I'm not generally given to superlatives and was quite taken by the number of reviewers here who make the claim for "Diabolique" as the most suspenseful film of all time. I too actually thought it was very good with a caveat that comes with the finale of the story which I'll get to in a bit. Director Clouzot really did a masterful job in extending the long exposition of this mystery. If one is fully engaged in the story, it's like chomping at the bit to figure out what's going on with the missing corpse from the pool and unexplained sightings of Michel Delassalle after he'd been 'murdered'. One should probably be able to see the twist coming, and maybe you could in another film, but this is one that plays on one's imagination in a way that blinds you to the eventual outcome. I thought it was just magnificently done.
The thing that bothered me about the ending are twofold. In the first instance, even if Michel (Paul Meurisse) and his lover Nicole (Simone Signoret) did manage to scare the frail Christina (Vera Clouzot) to death, what would be the basis for retired police commissioner Alfred Fichet (Charles Vanel) to arrest him for? Scaring someone to death to my mind seems more like conjecture than a chargeable crime. Who could prove it? Even though Fichet overheard the conversation between the conspirators, I don't see why a sharp lawyer couldn't put the blame on Christina's easily confirmed medical history and recent weakened condition.
The other issue comes courtesy of the young boy Moinet (Yves Marie-Maurin) who was disbelieved by all who heard him state that he saw the school principal after he disappeared. When he says he 'saw' Christina after she collapsed and was presumed dead, there was no confirmation in the story to prove the point. I'll grant that it was a good hook to keep the viewer guessing, just as it was the first time with Michel's 'murder'. But with former cop Fichet on hand, and school personnel around who would have to have removed the body, wouldn't it have to be established that she was actually dead? If one presumes so, then the scene with Moinet is a moot one.
One thought I had while watching was that this would have been a good film for Alfred Hitchcock to take under his wing, and was pleasantly educated by a handful of reviewers who stated that he missed getting the script for this film by a whisker. "Diabolique" was certainly worthy of a Hitchcock treatment, as I found it better than some of his venerated films like "Strangers on a Train" and "Shadow of a Doubt". If one disregards some of my earlier critique, I think it holds up as a pretty suspenseful thriller that keeps you guessing right till the very end.
The thing that bothered me about the ending are twofold. In the first instance, even if Michel (Paul Meurisse) and his lover Nicole (Simone Signoret) did manage to scare the frail Christina (Vera Clouzot) to death, what would be the basis for retired police commissioner Alfred Fichet (Charles Vanel) to arrest him for? Scaring someone to death to my mind seems more like conjecture than a chargeable crime. Who could prove it? Even though Fichet overheard the conversation between the conspirators, I don't see why a sharp lawyer couldn't put the blame on Christina's easily confirmed medical history and recent weakened condition.
The other issue comes courtesy of the young boy Moinet (Yves Marie-Maurin) who was disbelieved by all who heard him state that he saw the school principal after he disappeared. When he says he 'saw' Christina after she collapsed and was presumed dead, there was no confirmation in the story to prove the point. I'll grant that it was a good hook to keep the viewer guessing, just as it was the first time with Michel's 'murder'. But with former cop Fichet on hand, and school personnel around who would have to have removed the body, wouldn't it have to be established that she was actually dead? If one presumes so, then the scene with Moinet is a moot one.
One thought I had while watching was that this would have been a good film for Alfred Hitchcock to take under his wing, and was pleasantly educated by a handful of reviewers who stated that he missed getting the script for this film by a whisker. "Diabolique" was certainly worthy of a Hitchcock treatment, as I found it better than some of his venerated films like "Strangers on a Train" and "Shadow of a Doubt". If one disregards some of my earlier critique, I think it holds up as a pretty suspenseful thriller that keeps you guessing right till the very end.