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Set in a French boarding school for boys, "Les Diaboliques" tells the story of two teachers, Christina (played by Vera Clouzot), and Nicole (played by Simone Signoret), who conspire to kill the sadistic headmaster, a man who also happens to be Christina's abusive husband.

Like most murder mysteries, the story is highly improbable; nevertheless, the film is still hugely entertaining, thanks in part to plot twists and turns that even Agatha Christie would admire, and to the film's B&W lighting, that renders a noirish, sinister atmosphere.

The first half is interesting and tightly plotted. But the real strength of the film's underlying premise begins at the mid-point plot turn. The second half is riveting, because the tight plot begins to ooze with mystery and suspense. It builds to a final ten minutes that are as frightening as almost any ending in film history; dark interiors, shadows, ominous light at the end of a long hallway, a general absence of sound, a gloved hand, a scream, and an unexpected image. It's the very definition of spine-tingling suspense.

There is a clue to help solve the story's mystery in the film's first ten minutes; but like any good mystery, that clue is very subtle. All the film's acting is excellent, even down to the children actors. And, Simone Signoret is as wonderful here as she is in all of her other movies.

English subtitles require a little more work for viewers who cannot understand the French dialogue; yet, the story, the acting, and the cinematography should more than offset this minor irritation. Background music occurs only during the film's title sequence and closing credits; this general absence of music thus enhances suspense.

Although not strictly speaking a whodunit, "Les Diaboliques" is a classic murder mystery that has earned a well-deserved reputation for setting the standard for cinematic suspense. The story is riveting, and the film is technically well made. More recent films have tried to copy it; but this is the original.

The wife and the mistress of a headmaster pool their resources to scotch his wicked antics, pull the plug on his mathematics, but the corpse does a runner and tensions arise, as events unfold with increasing surprise, a basket case, a zombie face, a cracking French facade, what a spectacularly original and engrossing film to devise!

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Diabolique" (1955) is a really good mystery drama. It starts as a drama and then later some of the characters must done something horrible, but the true suspense comes after something very "not according to a plan" happens.

I liked the performances in this movie. Directing and writing was also great, as well as the involving story. The ending was surprising as well.

Overall, "Diabolique" isn't a horror movie as its genre description says - its a very solid mystery drama. It has involving story and it is very well done. Good movie overall.

Are you alone? good. Have you turned off the lights? good.Is there a storm brewing in that dark foreboding sky?Excellent. Do you like brilliant black and white movies? Wonderful.Now, sit back and enjoy the best of the best. This is quite simply the best psychological thriller ever made.Often imitated but never bettered. If you have a problem with subtitled films then don't worry because you will understand this film without reading them. If you want slash and gore, go elsewhere.If you want sophisticated entertainment,you've come to the right place.Georges Cluzot's finest work is a thing of beauty as is his wife Vera, who stars opposite Simone Signoret as the schoolmaster's wife.From the very start it is very clear that all is not as it seems. But why? and who? What is the terrible secret of the swimming pool and later on, the bathtub? As the tension builds to an unbearable climax, we sit and hide behind our hands, peering through the gaps in our fingers.Oh my God!! it can't be!.....it is! Do not confuse this movie with the disgraceful remake starring Sharon Stone. All copies of that disaster should be burned. Watch this movie if you are a serious film buff. Rent something else if you have the attention span of a goldfish.Brilliant. 10/10

Les Diaboliques is one of the tightest, pure suspense movies I have ever seen. The story starts out slowly, but as it moves on, peculiar things start to happen. This movie keeps you guessing in such a way, you are riveted to your seat, hoping for a quick resolution to the suspense. Yet, as the story unfolds, the suspense deepens. The final scene of the movie had me sitting back holding my breath.

This movie does not offer cheap, pop out and scare you tactics. Rather, it makes the viewer expect things to happen that don't. You wait on the edge of your seat for the quick jump out and scare you event to take place, but instead, it sneaks up from behind you. What an effect!

Les Diaboliques is a classic film that delivers the complete suspense package. It's not surprising that many suspense movies of the modern era have tried to copy the plot. This movie is well worth renting in a video store, if you can find it.

"Les Diaboliques" has one of the best plots you will ever find in any mystery or suspense thriller. The excellent directing, acting, and writing combine with the story itself to make it a memorable experience.

If you enjoy quality mysteries or thrillers, you will almost certainly enjoy this one - and if you have not seen it yet, you might just want to buy or rent it now, before you read any more reviews. This comment will avoid any discussion at all of the actual plot itself, because the less you know in advance, the more you will enjoy it. The few implausible elements in the story do not detract at all from the enjoyment.

A great plot does not all by itself make a good movie, and everything works especially well here because of the expert pacing by director Henri-Georges Clouzot and good, mostly understated acting by the main actors. We are drawn into their world very nicely. Everything about the characters and events is built up perfectly, to give the brilliant climax its full effect. Once again, see it before you find out any more.

Even if you do not normally watch black-and-white films or foreign movies (this is in French), if you enjoy thrillers, watch "Les Diaboliques" as soon as you have the chance.

Another terrific suspense film from Henri-Georges Clouzot, Les Diaboliques (also known as "Diabolique") is a tense story of murder, suspicion and revenge. The plot revolves around two women, Christina (Vera Clouzot) and Nicole (Simone Signoret) who conspire to murder the brutish man who is Christina's husband and Nicole's lover Michel, played by the delightfully sullen Paul Meurisse. He is the principal of a boarding school for boys who relies on Vera's money to support his excesses, and the two women are both teachers at the school.

Vera has her doubts about committing murder, even though Michel is incredibly abusive. But Nicole convinces her to help drug and then drown Michel. All seems to be going well until Michels body goes missing and the two women turn against each other. The situation is complicated further by the appearance of a retired police inspector who is determined to help Vera find her "missing" husband, despite the poor woman's protests. The tension continues to mount until the hair-raising climax.

This movie is on a par with some of Hitchcock's best work, although Clouzot doesn't mix much humor in with the suspense, as Hitch often did. However, Vera's interaction with the droll inspector does provides some chuckles. Unlike his previous film, The Wages Of Fear, Clouzot doesn't spend a whole lot of time on the set-up of the plot, but gets right to the meat of the matter, and from there Diabolique rolls along very quickly with barely a letup in the action.

I can't believe it took me so long to see this masterpiece. Highly recommended.

This is not a legend : after reading Pierre Boileau's novel, Alfred Hitchcock phone the editor in the morning to buy the story for making a film. But another great master, Henri-Georges Clouzot, had phone 30 minutes earlier. Mister Hitchcock was angry! But Hitch couldn't have done better than Clouzot. This is P-E-R-F-E-C-T! The black and white, the dialogues, the acting and even the reclusive French scool of the 1950's. And for the suspense... well every viewer of IMDB had said the same things I could said. So, Diaboliques is the best suspense thriller of all time, and also one of the best movie ever made. Please, I really said please, don't ever watch the remake with Isabelle Adjani and Sharon Stone. There are certains movies that you can't make two times. Like all the Hitchcock and Clouzot films, for example...

Scare the crap out of you!

I don't hand out many 10s. Some movies don't really require much thought or analysis. In the end all that matters is what happened to you when you first saw it.

I remember when I first saw this. Nothing scary at first, but the nastiness of the place and the people is effortlessly shown. And then the bad stuff starts to happen.

Ugliness...shock...suspense...shock...mystery...eeriness...awful shock.

I remember, though it must have been forty years ago, the climactic scenes with my neck hairs standing up, sweat on my face, clutching the theater armrests like I was in danger of falling, and finally realizing I was weeping- not tears of sadness, tears of helpless terror.

I envy anyone seeing this for the first time.

A personal recollection: 'Life' magazine (only those of a certain vintage will remember Life magazine) came out with a heavy-duty spread on this flick when it was released, hailing it as perhaps the most frightening movie ever made (remember the film industry wasn't as old then as it is today). I was nine years old and I begged and pleaded with my parents to be allowed to see it, to no avail. I did not get a chance to see it until much later in life, when it showed up on television. By then 'Psycho' and its successors had pushed the envelope of screen horror beyond what this film gives us. Still, the movie stands up pretty damn well on the creepiness scale. It is interesting to know that Hitchcock wanted the rights to this, and intriguing to imagine what he would have done with it. It's interesting to note that the film makers were not above providing some comic relief, in the form of the landlord and his wife in the boarding house where the murder takes place. Well worth viewing, in spite of the trouble of reading subtitles.

Maybe my expectations were just too high for this, but I have to say it was quite the disappointment. I didn't find Diabolique bad by any means, but hearing people say that it's better than anything Hitchcock ever did is pretty laughable in my eyes. I think it looks worse by comparison to Hitchcock, but in it's own right it's a solid, if not particularly impressive work. Concerning the wife and mistress of a school headmaster who conspire to murder him together, Henri-Georges Clouzot's film took a while to get going for me but once it did I found some solid enjoyment out of it.

A lot of what makes it work comes more from the work of the two women at it's core. Simone Signoret, as the mistress, takes charge of the murderous plot and stands firm in her beliefs, cold and calculated. She's always trying to remain in control, remain collected, and when things start to unravel you can see her slowly twist at the idea of potentially suffering the consequences. Vera Clouzot, as the wife, takes on the more unstable, emotional role and she really makes it sing. She is wild, uncontrollable and never at rest. Whereas Signoret is very still and mannered, Clouzot bounces off the walls in her distress and this contrast between them drives the film more than anything the director himself does.

There are some nice twists in the narrative that keep the mystery alive in the latter half of the film, along with a stunning final sequence that finally lived up to the hype that had been built around the film. The final sequence was mesmerizing and terrifying, culminating in a twist that I was surprised I didn't see coming. That being said, the resolution itself was disappointingly pedestrian. Overall though, I didn't find much to write home about here, although it was certainly good. This was my first Clouzot film and I'll be sure to check out several more of his works, but if this is a sign of what he has to offer me then I'm afraid I'll never be able to understand those who rank him above his English companion.

DIABOLIQUE (Henri-Georges Clouzot - France 1955).

I must admit I found Clouzot's earlier WAGES OF FEAR(1953) slightly disappointing and therefor temporarily held back from watching any other films he made but how wrong I was! This much discussed classic was one of the most frightening and disturbing films I've ever seen. The music theme played during the opening credits with the organ and the singing schoolchildren still makes the hairs in my neck stand up, even at this very moment.

The story revolves around the tyrant schoolmaster Delasalle (Paul Meurisse) of a seedy boarding school, his wife (Vera Clouzot) and his mistress (Simone Signoret). An he maltreats them both, they decide to work together to murder him. They drown Delasalle in the bathtub and dump the corpse in the abandoned swimming pool next to the school. But then, eerie things start to happen. When the pool is drained and no body is found, the two women grow increasingly fearful that Delasalle is still alive. When subsequently his suit is returned from the dry-cleaners and the schoolchildren repeatedly testify they've seen Delasalle, they start to panic and the strange occurrences surrounding his supposed resurrection slowly drive them into insanity and complete paranoia.

Justifiably hailed as one of the most suspenseful films ever made and often compared to Hitchcock's work. Clouzot lacks the master's wit but as far as suspense goes, he is incomparable. Very much opposed to Hitchcock, this film - like most of his work - has a very cynical and misanthropic feel to it. Perhaps largely due to this very dark tone and Clouzot's excellent eye for detail, even today it still has the power to drive you right up the wall. And Simone Signoret, whom I've never (consciously) seen before in other films, greatly added to my admiration of this film. A sublime actress and an absolutely hypnotizing screen presence. The entire cast is terrific for that matter with Charles Vanel as inspector Fichet another standout.

Clouzot takes his time to build up the story very precisely but once the mysterious things start to happen every scene adds to an almost unbearable tension. You'll watch every facial expression and every detail on screen with increasing paranoia yourself, in order to understand what on earth could have happened. And the ending is so surprising that I wasn't quite sure anymore about the things I just saw, even right after the film's ending. A genuinely great movie that more than lives up to its status and has lost none of its impact over the last five decades.

Camera Obscura --- 10/10

'Les diaboliques' made in 1955 by Henri-Georges Clouzot ends with an explicit request from the viewers of not sharing the plot and especially the end of the film. Of course, I will honor this request. I will say, however, that it's a long time since I had the pleasure of seeing a smart thriller like this. It's a film that shows its age in the way it's filmed and acted, but that does not bother at all, but on the contrary, like the best alcohols, it seems to be better appreciated now, in the perspective of the 64 years that have passed since its launching on screens.

I wonder why Clouzot 's name is not mentioned in the dialogue book between Truffaut and Hitchcock. Truffaut definitely knew this movie, and I would be amazed if Hitchcock did not know about it as well. I dare to fantasize that if this clever scenario (based on a novel) with characters well-characterized psychologically, with the story taking place in two closed spaces (a boarding school and a province house) linked one to the other by a journey with the car, with its suspense and permanent changes of situations and evolution of the characters that keep the audience's interest constant, Hitchcock the master of suspense would not have refused the opportunity to make this film.

Simone Signoret achieves in 'Les diaboliques' one of the most memorable roles of her career. There are many contrasts between the character played by her and the one acted by Véra Clouzot. Strong woman vs. weak woman. Mistress vs. wife. The apparent mismatch is accentuated by the fragility of the wife, in a role where a tragic real life coincidence involved the death of the actress, wife of director Clouzot, a few years after the film was made. Paul Meurisse in the role of the despicable school director is so credible that many of the spectators would like to cross the screen to kill him with their own hands. It is worth watching also each of the secondary roles, which offer the opportunity of unique creations, original typologies mostly in the comic register , in the best tradition of the classic French film and theater. Among them you will find with more than a decade in advance the character that inspired the creators of Inspector Columbo.All these make of 'Les diaboliques' a jewel of the classic French cinema and of the psychological thriller genre of all times.

The film "Les Diaboliques", directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, takes place in a French boys boarding school in France. The two main characters are Christina (actress Vera Clouzot) and Nicole (actress Simone Signoret) who are both teachers at the school. Together, they plan to murder the school's headmaster, Christina's husband, after years of being abused and mistreated.

The two women get away from the school, but sure enough, the husband Delasalle (actor Paul Meurisse) wants his wife with him, so he falls into their trap and meets them at the house where they're staying. Christina and Nicole drug his drink so he is unconscious and then forcefully drown him in a bathtub. Afterwards, they hide him in a large basket that is strong enough to carry a grown man. Delasalle's corpse is brought back to the school with them and is later tossed into the swimming pool hidden by the dark of the night.

Days later, Christina demands that the pool be drained so that the body may be discovered. She covers her true reasoning by saying that the pool must be cleaned. To her complete surprise and horror (not to mention the viewer's surprise and horror as well), the body is not there! The series of events continue to haunt the two women and they are confused by what has happened. The arrival of the suit Delasalle was wearing on the day of his death, his blurry face displayed in a school photograph, and a schoolboy's word that he indeed spoke to the school master himself all confuse the characters and viewers. What happened to the body?

"Les Diaboliques" has gained a special popularity because of its jaw-dropping ending. This will, of course, not be revealed here. One must watch the entire film to learn how this masterpiece answers the many questions they have. At the end of the film, there is a plea written to not share the ending with anyone. The experience of watching this French thriller is like no other and is best observed with no spoilers.

The Delassalles run a second rate boarding school in St Cloud, the site of cruelties both quotidien and painstakingly planned. Monsieur le directeur, is a penny-pinching fastidious tyrant, Madame la directrice, a child-tender blessed spirit of the building, and to complete the love triangle, Nicole, a sort of a statuesque female Tom Ripley. The film creeps up on you slowly in its apparent effortlessness, lack of showiness, and reliance on suggestion. It is known for its gradually crescendoing tension, which is heightened by Mme Delassalle's weak heart, a case of art imitating life as actress Véra Clouzot would die of a heart attack a few years later, aged 46.

Henri-Georges Clouzot has been accused of straightwashing the Boileau-Narcejac story, although a wordly eye notices many allusions to a relationship between Christina and Nicole, the clearest example when asked whether a bed is Christina's or Nicole's, Christina defiantly replies, "ours". This is as much as commerciality and the mores of the 1950s cinema allows. An easy intimacy is shown by the implied dorsogluteal (bum!) injection Nicole delivers to Christina late on in the movie (Christina lies on her front and the injection is delivered too quickly to have been intravenous).

The opening credits background, a chaotic strew of duckweed and water, is accompanied by an enervating tune, increasingly sinister and raucous, one of several times Les Diaboliques is unsettling without resorting to crassness. The movie is one of those examples where artistic restraint noticeably elevates the results, where redolence trumps exposition. Perhaps my favourite image in the movie is of Nicole using tongs to carry a glass retort around her classroom, full of a boiling black substance, a stomach-shaped visual metaphor for what is going inside her.

The dialogue is very tight and pretty flawless, and again, very suggestive. As the Insitut Delassalle breaks for half term, M. Raymond breaks the prim facade of school life by mentioning that tomorrow he will be completely naked; he must escape from the stifling bourgeois act. Various hints of the inequity of the world and its inherent stupidity garnish the central black pudding. The children have taxis and chauffeurs whilst the well-studied teachers have to beg for a swallow of cheap wine from the headmaster, and live stifled and petty existences. A choice dark note is when the teachers who Nicole lets rooms to confidently prognosticate that Mme la directrice and their landlady must eat far better food than them due to their social situation; we the audience have already seen them eating flaccid gone over morsels out of slop. How easy it is to get our imaginations of one another's existences flat out wrong; hell is born in how we appear in other peoples' imaginations, as Sartre opined.

The film escalates to a diaphanous vision in the night and unhinges into the mystical. Highly recommended.

The first collaboration of writing duo Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac seemed an ideal vehicle for Alfred Hitchcock but by all accounts he narrowly missed acquiring the rights and it was to become 'Les Diaboliques' under the direction of Henri-Georges Clouzot. As Hitchcock later filmed their 'D'entre les morts' as 'Vertigo' the authors could be said to have hit the jackpot twice.

Both directors of course were masters of their craft and had a similar approach to their material in terms of storyboarding at the pre-production stage, in detailing every camera movement and the blocking of every scene. Hitchcock and his adaptor Alex Coppel watched Clouzot's film on many occasions whilst preparing 'Vertigo' and the influence on 'Psycho' is there for all to see.

In contrast to the open-air suspense of 'Le Salaire de la Peur' Clouzot has here given us an enclosed, claustrophobic setting in which the rundown school building mirrors the moral degeneracy of the protagonists.

Paul Meurisse, one of his country's finest actors, excels even by his standards as the utterly loathsome Michel whilst the strapping and sensual Simone Signoret as Nicole makes all the other blonde bombshells look positively anaemic. A perfect contrast is offered by the petite Vera Clouzot, the director's wife, as Christine, terrorised by Michel, tortured by Catholic guilt and whose fate in the film still has the power to shock. It is bitterly ironic that this lovely artiste was fated to die from a heart attack. By far the most interesting character, for this viewer at any rate, is the Commissaire Fichet of Charles Vanel, an obvious precursor to Colombo with his rumpled demeanor, old raincoat and cigar. This is another in the gallery of unforgettable characters created by Vanel in an astonishingly long career and it cannot be coincidental that when Hitchcock made 'To catch a Thief' he cast Vanel as Commissaire Bertrani.

Although the film is topped and tailed by the music of Georges van Parys, it is the lack of music throughout plus the superb editing that intensifies the suspense whilst the pervading seediness is captured by the greyness of Armand Thirard's cinematography. Almost seventy years on it remains an indisputed masterpiece of its type despite an ending that stretches credibility to the utmost.

It is said that a work of art reflects its creator and what this says about Monsieur Clouzot one shudders to think but Mme Signoret has offered a rare insight: 'He has to work in a constant ambience of crisis. He has to be depressed, he has to be sad and expects all his artistes and technicians to share his sorrow completely.'

What it lacks in the piercing tension or suspense that characterize some of the filmmaker's other works, it makes up for with strong disquiet and nervous energy that's kept at a constant low boil - slowly but surely rising to a minor but pervasive sense of horror. Michel is so plainly monstrous, played with utmost toxicity by Paul Meurisse, that Christina and Nicole are readily sympathetic despite the conspiracy. Christina's delicate condition, indecisiveness, and extreme anxiety, and Nicole's sheer intensity, determination, and force of personality, are by themselves enough to make the picture deeply compelling even if the narrative didn't take the dark turns that it does; Véra Clouzot and Simone Signoret inhabit their respective roles with wholehearted emotional depth that's tremendously gratifying as a viewer. Factor in the haunting undertones that define the mystery of pretty much the entire second half, and 'Les diaboliques' is without question a gripping, gnawing masterpiece of quiet atmosphere and soft dread that remains an essential classic even almost seventy years later.

Georges Van Parys' score is what first greets us over the opening credits with chords so grim and fierce that rather invokes a feeling of horror all by itself - recalling, for example, Georges Delerue's work on 'L'important c'est d'aimer,' or Jean Prodromidès' music for 'Danton.' Then, shrewdly, that score disappears for the vast majority of the runtime. There's no need for it, as the story speaks for itself, and deftly crafts those hair-raising genre chills all on its own merits. Careful scene writing certainly feeds into that, laying in more details to add to the uneasy tone; I need hardly repeat that Christina and Nicole as written, and specifically as portrayed by Clouzot and Signoret, are essential to making this as great as it is. Meanwhile, it's just as noteworthy that as filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot again collaborates here with screenwriter Jérôme Géronimi as he did with 1953's 'The wages of fear,' also returning is cinematographer Armand Thirard. Between Clouzot's impeccable, wonderfully smart orchestration of shots and scenes as director, and Thirard's shrewd, calculated photography, 'The wages of fear' was shaped with no few strokes of outright brilliance to fill it with heavy suspense once all necessary introductions and exposition were out of the way. Here, that same combination of skills means 'Les diaboliques' is flush with unsettled airs and a harrowing vibrancy suggesting not just Alfred Hitchcock but the Vincent Price, Hammer Films, or John Carpenter.

This has a sterling reputation and I certainly assumed I'd enjoy it, especially having loved some of Clouzot's other movies. And still I'm taken with just how good this is. To some extent I had my doubts about the long-standing application of the "horror" label, but it turns out that is a very apt descriptor after all, to my pleasure, as it thrives on splendid unnerving ambience. Even at that I think it stays well enough outside the common boundaries of that more far-flung genre that even folks who generally stay away from horror will find this more to their liking. When all is said and done I rather think this is pretty much a must-see, for it handily proves its worth over these two hours, is very well done in every regard, and absolutely holds up so many years later. Just as a matter of personal preference this won't appeal equally to all, yet as far as I'm concerned 'Les diaboliques' is a terrific classic that continues to deserve all its mighty celebration.

I expect that Criterion films are of certain importance. They are films that have something unique to offer. Even Armageddon deserves a certain amount of recognition. It documents the way that blockbusters are going nowadays.

I can honestly say that I think I understand the importance of Diabolique. The film was most likely incredibly innovative for the time period. I am impressed that the only shots that felt dated were the head-on driving shots, and aside from those, the direction is entirely appropriate. It does not call attention to itself, it has grace, and it is not feel like it has been copied since. The script is tightly written, no lines are wasted.

On a personal level, I felt a little disappointed. I figured out the ending very quickly. My father, who would have been 16 when this was released, had no idea the ending was coming at all. The originality of this ending has been sacked by modern thrillers, horrors, and dramas. Regardless of deciphering the ending, this is still worth watching, even for historical purposes.