Games

A clever, well-acted thriller with enough plot twists to leave you reeling, and an ending you will not believe. From a dull beginning to an exhaustingly clever ending, it will hold you spellbound, confused, engrossed and tense. Should be re-released, but not re-made.

When I was a kid living in southeast Missouri in the early '80s, this movie was frequently shown on television; there was a cable station out of St. Louis, I believe, that would show this. It would be shown as an afternoon movie from around 2-4 p.m., maybe, and then AGAIN in the evening, from 8-10. Captivated me the first couple of times I saw it, with its slick, stylish production values and quiet, slowly-escalating suspense, but I have to admit I got a little tired of seeing it. So I don't know what all this talk about it not being on TV is about. Well worth seeing if you never have, though, or if it's been awhile. All the performances are top notch, the story keeps you hooked and guessing--at least if you haven't seen a lot of these kinds of movies, I guess; to be honest, I think even as a kid I had a vague idea of how it would turn out. But getting there is fun.

Curtis Harrington, a director as interesting as he is unknown who did his first work on the B series, tackles here a project with more budget and more pretensions that lets you see and makes you hang out but that does not go much further and is too predictable .

Reminiscent of movies like Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955) or Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944), the great asset of this psychological thriller is the presence and great acting on of Simón Signoret (who was in 1955 film), in addition to the beautiful photography and the adequate recreation of a morbid and somewhat perverse atmosphere that as the plot film progresses is becoming more oppressive.

Stylish, offbeat American variation on the classic French thriller DIABOLIQUE, which also featured Simone Signoret in the lead. Signoret is equally effective here, and a young James Caan and Katharine Ross are also impressive as the bewildered young couple whose seemingly mindless game-playing takes a deadly turn for the worse when the mystical Signoret enters their lives. Director Curtis Harrington(who also had a hand in the script) has added some exciting and effective new touches to this first-rate suspense tale.

It's a shame this is not easily available on DVD. It was a really cool thriller, well plotted, well acted.