"Two Hours to Kill" couldn't possibly have started better or more promising! Whilst showing stills of buildings and rooftops of a seemingly sleepy little town, a stern and dead-serious voiceover explains how the place is named Auvernaux and how since several weeks everyone who lives here is beyond terrified because there's a serial killer at large. Three women have been murdered already, and the killer always takes away of their shoes. The voiceover ends by saying the murders take place in the neighborhood of the small train station, before the action actually also switches to this same station where a handful of people missed their train and must wait two hours until the next one.
Admittedly, the rest of the film doesn't live up to the marvelous opening, but the atmosphere remains moody and unsettling throughout. There's non-stop talking between the stranded people and the railway staff, but you sense that the killer is near and not everyone will survive the night. Because of the black & white and the setting of an isolated station, "Two Hours to Kill" reminded me a lot about one of the creepiest episodes of "The Twilight Zone", namely "Mirror Image". With all the sinister people and the chain smoking, you also expect Rod Serling to walk into the waiting hall at any second. Not a great film, but a decent French film-noir with strong performances and a clever (and unforeseeable) twist-ending.
