La Dixième femme de Barbe Bleue

This one had me scratching my head. It's directed by Billy Wilder's brother and written by his nephew. I wondered if someone thought they were making a comedy, but Billy had gotten all the sense of humor in the family. Either that, or someone thought that Chaplin's MONSIEUR VERDOUX was too silly.

George Sanders plays his usual faux-charming role, but without any wit in the writing, he's very dull. He's in love with a young singer, but all she's interested in is money, so he decides to kill other women so he can give their jewelry to her. This goes on for a while in a manner that is neither horrific nor funny.

This movie was banned in Finland. I'm not sure why they bothered.

1960's "Bluebeards Ten Honeymoons" (no apostrophe) is a low budget British take on Henri Landru, a lesser effort than 1944's "Bluebeard" or 1947's "Monsieur Verdoux," but easily the best feature from the undistinguished W. Lee Wilder (brother of director Billy Wilder, long estranged), and scripted by Myles Wilder, son of 'Willie,' nephew of Billy. Distinguished by the always formidable presence of George Sanders in the tailor made title role, having fallen for a gold digging chanteuse (Corinne Calvet) who leads him to commit a series of financially rewarding murders (but not once marrying a single one). The first death (Patricia Roc) is the only accidental one, her determined sister (Ingrid Hafner) bringing about the killer's downfall, but not before he finally exacts revenge on his philandering mistress. The not unattractive Corinne Calvet had seen better days, and would soon be relegated to mostly television roles, her drunken character so unappealing that one wonders why Landru would be so besotted with her, at a loss calculated in his little black book to be 30,000 francs. George Sanders, now happily married to his beloved Benita Hume, would triumph again with his next film, the classic "Village of the Damned," while veteran George Coulouris is once again wasted in a small role. Alas, most of the victims are dispatched too quickly to make much of an impression, but among them are Greta Gynt, who co-starred with Bela Lugosi in 1939's "The Dark Eyes of London," and Maxine Audley, remembered for both 1960's "Peeping Tom" and 1969's "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed." Ingrid Hafner would soon play Dr. David Keel's nurse through the entire first season of THE AVENGERS, but would not return after Ian Hendry bowed out of the series, leaving Patrick Macnee to carry on with other partners. W. Lee Wilder's Hollywood career featured titles like "Once a Thief," "Manfish" (both with Lon Chaney), "Phantom from Space," "Killers from Space," "The Snow Creature," and "Fright," four of which found their way on to Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, which aired "Bluebeards Ten Honeymoons" a total of four times (curiously, still unavailable on VHS or DVD). Winding down in Europe, things hardly improved for 'Willie,' with "The Man Without a Body," "Spy in the Sky!" and this picture, bowing out in 1967 with "The Omegans," shot in the Philippines (brother Billy would refer to him as a 'dull son of a b--ch').

This little film is among the best of Georges Sanders performances, where he is as exquisite as usual, as he was in Albert Lewin's features. This cynical and ruthless old dandy character suits him like a glove. The typical character that built his legend, an unforgettable actor. Landru, his character, is of course inspired by the notorious french serial killer from the forties. And, most of all, this movie is the best one made by W Lee Wilder who rather directed grade Z science fiction or thriller movies. This film, shown without the director's name, I would have never bet a cent on him. I even doubt that he actually made this film. It looks like an Edgard Ulmer's film instead, and certainly not W Lee Wilder, although some of his films were not totally dull either, crime flicks I mean, not Science fiction. Yes this is the W Lee Wilder's masterpiece.

My only complaint about this film is that the anti-hero, Henri Landru, is played by George Sanders. Now Sanders was a fine actor...but with his melodious British accent, he seemed oddly out of place because his character was supposed to be French...and everyone else in the film has a French accent! Still, considering all I liked, I can live with this.

When the story begins, Henri meets a very mercenary woman (Corinne Calvet) and she sweet-talks a lot of money out of him. But he's not a wealthy man and cannot afford such a 'lady' and instead of just dumping her, he goes on a killing spree in order to become a rich man and to be able to afford her! So, again and again, he finds widows and manages to trick them out of their money and he kills them...and in a few cases brutally so. What's next? See the film.

Henri Landru could have been a pathetic and thoroughly stupid character...and that would have harmed the film. Fortunately, while he is at first an old fool, he doesn't stay stupid forever and his cleverness and persistence make the story interesting...as were some of the murders...which were amazingly grisly for the time. Well worth seeing and an exciting tale.

Look what you have-you've got George Sanders sleepwalking through the roll of Landru (and he sleepwalks so hysterically) and you've got Billy Wilder's brother directing (I guess Billy had other fish to fry at the time) and on top of all this you've got Corinne Calvet looking desperately alluring. The best part of this whole thing is watching George gleefully dusting off the old babes. The mundane dialogue is delivered in campy style by George at all times. Definetly and acquired taste but oooh la! la!