Dominique : Les Yeux de l'épouvante

The absolute most positive comment I can write about "Dominique" is that director Michael Anderson and his entire cast & crew remained 100% faithful to their initial intention of making an old-fashioned convoluted and atmosphere-driven "vengeance-from-beyond-the-grave" mystery thriller/horror. "Dominique" undeniably relies on plot clichés, stereotype characters and predictable jump-scares, but somehow it still stands as a respectable and potent semi-classic of the late 70s, and (correct me if I'm wrong) no true horror fanatic would ever criticize it entirely.

It's quite easy to list all the minor and less minor defaults of this production. Heck, I'm also guilty of jokingly referring to the title as "Dominique is Dull" instead of "Dominique is Dead". The pacing is incredibly slow, often on the verge of comatose even. Almost a third of the footage easily could have been cut as well, notably all Cliff Robertson's snail-paced trips through the corridor and down to the greenhouse to check whether or not his supposedly dead wife is bungling from the ceiling. Most of the supernatural gimmicks and tension builders are pretty weak and transparent (especially the self-playing piano) and the denouement honestly is quite easy to foretell, even if you haven't seen "Diabolique" and its four dozen of inferior imitations.

And yet ... it's utmost admirable, I think, that "Dominique" stubbornly and wholeheartedly persists in trying to disquiet you with minimal resources. Contrary to many other, similarly themed films, this one didn't cause me to go eye-rolling or hit the fast-forward button. A handful of sequences really are effectively uncanny, like the arrogant husband suddenly getting confronted with his own date of death on a tombstone, and some sub plots really are clever, like what's the dubious role of the doctor. It also helps, of course, that the cast exclusively contains extremely professional and experienced names. Cliff Robertson is terrific, and he receives qualitative support from Jenny Agutter, Simon Ward, Jean Simmons and even that lovely elderly Flora Robson. "Dominique" may be routine horror guff, but I daresay that I'm proud to have it in my collection nonetheless!

A wealthy wife is convinced that his equally wealthy husband tries to drive her mad by scary voices and haunting portents at their country mansion. After her sudden death, she seems to return to haunt the husband.

Predictable and fairly restricted all-star suspense shocker on the lines of "Les Diaboliques" with very occasional moments of "frisson".

I have not seen Dominique in years... watching it again after years of no see I find the movie extremely good. If you want a fast-paced, bloody ghost story then this film is not for you. This film is what you might call 'slow' and written well instead of 'fast' and all bloody eye-candy with no solid story. Dominique is my kind of a ghost story - just a damned good story with quality acting.

The story is exactly like the plot summery. Basically, a money-hungry husband and the 'ghost' of a vengeful wife. There is more to this story but I will not tell it because it would ruin the film for those who have not seen it yet. It's a must watch for lovers of older ghost stories.

I remembered the film to be good - but it is so much better than I recalled it to be. This might be a 'boring' ghost story for some - for others, like myself, this is a quality haunting film.

8.5/10

I was pleasantly surprised at this movie. Expecting B-rate 70's schlock (not that there is anything wrong with that) I witnessed a movie that actually held my attention without me having to snipe at it for entertainment. My major complaint - this movie was too long by half. We got a few too many scenes of Ballard waking up, putting on his house coat, and walking to somewhere. Something else happens - Ballard puts his housecoat on again and walks. Acting was stiff at best, and it looks as if somebody forgot to pay the light bill, but those could be overcome by a somewhat interesting plot line, a unexpectedly brilliant ending, and some psych. intrigue I didn't think possible in the 70's. I just wish somebody would talk more than 1 sentence somewhere in the movie.

**SPOILERS** Cliff Robertson looks like he just walked on the set without knowing what the movie's all about and without a script to cue him in this vary slow and and dark,the movie makers must have saved a mint on the low electricity bill, Ghost/Suspense/Thriller "Dominique is Dead".

Stock-broker David Ballard, Cliff Robertson, is on the verge of going bankrupt in his stock picking and investing business and needs loads of ready cash fast to avoid it. With David's wife Dominique, Jean Simmons, in control of the family fortune he has to work fast to either drive her insane or to suicide in order to inherit her estate and rigs up all kinds of gimmicks to do it.

After a while Dominique is totally unsure if she's losing her mind or if what she's been seeing and hearing in the dead of night are real. Before you know it David finds her hanging in the greenhouse dead, an obvious suicide. Things now seem to look up for the scheming and maniacal David with Dominique's dead and him to be the one to get his hands on her money, and keep his stock business from going under, but instead the exact opposite begins to happen. Strange sounds in the night with the piano playing Dominique's favorite musical piece all by itself and even Dominique herself appearing out of nowhere and haunting David driving him out of his mind like he did to her.

David really gets shaken up when he's called by the cemetery manager where Dominique is buried to find his own headstone next to her's stating that he'll be joining her very soon. At his office David sees this women in black outside in the street watching him, the same woman that was supposed to have paid for his headstone, all hours of the day. The man completely freaks out when later there's an inscription carved on his headstone born. June 14, 1931 and died. October 25, 1977 which is just a few days hence!

Going to the cemetery and digging up Dominique's coffin with his faithful limo-driver Tony Calvert, Simon Ward, both David and Tony are shocked to find the coffin empty! Is Dominique dead or is she really alive? Later having Dominique officially exhumed it's found to the shock of David and Tony that her body is really there! what did Dominique do? go back in her grave after David and Tony dug it up? David gets so crazy that he starts to accuse his housemaid old Mrs. Davis, Flora Robson, of being behind all these ghostly incidents that's appearing to him which makes her leave the mansion in both fear and disgust.

With Dominique popping up every night and spooking him has David empty a fully loaded handgun on her only to find, later with Tony,that the bullets not only went through her but ended up embedded in the walls and door of the house! Now totally insane David is driven to the edge of a balcony of his house and falls to his death in the greenhouse; the very place where Dominique's body was found on the early morning of October 25, 1977! the date of his death inscribed on his tombstone.

With Dominique's last Will & Testament read by her lawyer at the end of the movie we get an idea to who was behind this scam to drive David to his death like he did to Dominique. We have to sit through another ten minutes or so for the culprits to reveal themselves and at the same time fall out by double-crossing each other.

Overlong and at times boring "Dominique is Dead" should have ended some ten minutes earlier leaving the audience up in the air to what really was behind all the strange and unexplained happening in the movie. By awkwardly trying to explain them, very unconvincingly, away the film muddled the plot even more and just self-destructed like the tape-recorder in the TV series "Mission Impossible".