Un meurtre est un meurtre

The turn of the decade (sixties/seventies) was Chabrol 's heyday.To reproduce his (commercial and critical) success,the same ingredients were chosen(a murder mystery,a bourgeois house,Stephane Audran,Chabrol's then wife playing parts of twin sisters -after Olivia de Havilland,why not her?-,Chabrol in the flesh in a cameo -he's the Pullman's inspector-)to give the flick the aura of .... an ersatz Chabrol movie.There are ,at a pinch ,two good suspenseful scenes; the wheelchair on the road,pursued by a car,and the hanged man in the graveyard which pack a real wallop.

Etienne Périer was to continue in the ersatz Chabrol vein with "la main à couper",but he was luckier with his "un si joli village" (1978) which was closer to Cayatte/Boisset social criticism.