Le crime était signé

Max Poulton (Stewart Granger) is a movie producer working on the French Riviera and having a tempestuous affair with his leading lady, Gina (Gianna Maria Canale). Max considers coming clean to his faithful wife, Carol (Donna Reed), but a mysterious man named Carliss (George Sanders), a detective from Scotland Yard, informs Max that Gina has been murdered. When Gina shows up to Carol's party alive, and then is murdered hours later, Max believes he has been set up by Carliss, who now claims that he was Gina's husband and not a detective.

A slick and stylish whodunit with many twists and turns stars Stewart Granger who is quite debonair and convincing as a film producer who is framed for the murder of an actress he once had a fling with. She threatens to reveal this to his wife. But of course, she gets stabbed, but not before George Sanders, in a typical slimy cad role, appears, kickstarting a cat and mouse situation. From the beginning, THE WHOLE TRUTH proves to be quite a compelling thriller, and it's a great to see Granger and Sanders play off against each other. Gianna Maria Canale as the vamp-like actress is really good in her role, and Donna Reed does well, too.

Stewart Granger looks for "The Whole Truth" in this 1958 film also starring Donna Reed, George Sanders, and Gianna Maria Canale. The exotic Canale plays the star of producer Granger's film. He once had an affair with her when his wife (Reed) briefly left him. It's over, but she wants to start it up again. At man (Sanders) visits Granger posing as a Scotland Yard detective and informs him that his star is dead. Except she's not - she shows up at a party at Sanders' house. He drives her home, leaves the car, and when he returns to it, she is indeed dead. Granger must then prove that he was framed.

This film is a little disjointed. It has some neat twists and is told with some humor, but somehow, it doesn't hang together. Reed, normally quite good, isn't much of a presence. The rest of the acting is better. Granger is very believable as a producer, and we've seen George Sanders do elegant sinister many times. I actually enjoyed Canale the most. She kind of reminded me of Gina Lollabrigida.

Film Producer Max Poulton is having an affair with his leading lady, the hot tempered beauty, Gina Bertini. During a party one night, Max is visited by a man named Carliss, who claims to be from CID, and explains that Gina had been murdered, Gina later pops up at the party, what possible reason could Carliss have for lying?

Before I give an opnio, I'll start by saying I adore mysteries from the fifties and sixties, especially those from Durbridge, Hitchcock and Wallace, this is very much a film in their style. Expect suspense and intrigue, and several scenes to leave you scratching your head.

I really enjoyed it, a slick and stylish mystery, considering the amazing cast it doesn't particularly feel high budget, but the story and acting more than make up for it. It's is beautifully filmed, there is also some wonderful location work to enjoy. I even enjoyed the accompanying music, it fits the film well.

After a fast paced, exciting opening, the mystery really does begin, there are so many curious occurrences, but it's well plotted, and ultimately it's very satisfying.

I was mainly looking forward to seeing Stewart Grainger, and he's excellent, but the film was stolen by George Sanders. The whole cast do a fine job, the scene in The Cafe where Poulton learns from Carliss exactly what's going on is great.

8/10.

"The Whole Truth" breaks a number of murder mystery conventions, making it pleasantly unpredictable. It's almost Hitchcockian (in the lighthearted vein of "Rear Window"), with a good measure of humor, suspense, and romance.

While the film may lack megastars, its cast's performances are faultless. George Sanders is at his oily best in the film as Mr. Carliss, while Stewart Granger is a worthy leading man. Its brisk pace is complimented by a fantastic, upbeat jazz score, more typical of '60s spy films. Its aesthetic sense --cinematography, set direction-- isn't particularly fabulous, and it fails to capture the beauty of its French Riviera setting, but that fortunately doesn't detract from the delightfully suspenseful story.

Ultimately it's a fun bit of suspenseful entertainment --not iconic but definitely worth watching.

I rated this film 5/10 as it was no more than par for the course.The minute George Sanders appeared, I knew he was going to play another suave sophisticated villain as he has played in so many other films.Donna Reed must have been disappointed with her rather anodyne part and Stewart Granger does his best with the dialogue in the mediocre screenplay.

As far as I was concerned, the star of the film was the 1958 white Jaguar XK3 sports car.A few location shots around the south of France were seen but the rest was obviously shot in a film studio.The most farcical shot was a so called "car chase" that seemed to be wholly and claustrophobically shot on the film set where the cars seemed to be going round in circles around the artificial buildings!