The sixties were a new phase in André Cayatte's career ;he sometimes championed causes ,his trademark ("Le Glaive Et La Balance" ,"Les Risques Du Métier" )but he also tried new tacks with some success;of course panned by the would be heroes of the new wavelet ,he nevertheless innovated :"La vie Conjugale" was two different movies ,depicting a couple's life ,from the husband's and from the wife's point of views;" Le Glaive Et La balance" renewed the movie-trial ;the only real horror was "Les Chemins De Kathmandou")
And there's 'Piège Pour Cendrillon";Cayatte was not exactly in his field when he broaches this pure psychological thriller;by and large ,I do not go much for Japrisot's stuff ,which is ,IMHO ,no match for Boileau-Narcejac ,Frederic Dard (his thrillers of course),let alone Agatha Christie.
That said ," Piège Pour Cendrillon " is a different matter;the subject is not new ("Spellbound" , the contemporary " the third day " ( 1965) "shattered" and countless others dealt with amnesia );but the treatment,including four parts ,each one containing the same verb in four different tenses of French conjugation was downright disturbing;and the ending was all the more baffling since the mystery was not solved .(It was the reader who decided :Jean Anouilh's screenplay opted for a "moral" ending )The book was the subject of many serious studies and essays by psychoanalysts ,which was not the case for stuff such as ,say,"L'Eté Meurtrier".
A devilish conspiracy involving a victim of a fire who awakes in a hospital ,suffering from amnesia:is she Dominique or Michèle? Might she be a criminal?
We already knew that Cayatte had a certain flair for film Noir,as certain aspects of "Le Glaive Et La Balance" showed;abetted by two excellent actresses,he succeeded in building a threatening atmosphere.Madeleine Robinson gives goose flesh in her portrayal of a calculating woman :too often overlooked ,she was definitely one of our very best thespians .Dany Carrel found here her lifetime role: she played two parts (two different personalities in flashbacks);the more she goes back in the past and tries to find who she really is ,the more she's confused and lost .
René Dary,a veteran from the silent age (Feuillade's Bébé),appears as the surgeon .
Remade in England ("trap for Cinderella" 2013):this time two different actresses play the amnesiac ,but the movie succumbs to contemporary clichés (lesbianism,nudity,flashy cinematography).
