"Diabolique"
1955
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

Heralded as the French Hitchcock, Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages of Fear) gives a thrilling lesson to the master of suspense with this grisly tale. Set in a boys school run by a sadistic headmaster, Diabolique presents a sinister world where the kindest character is reduced to murder. To escape  the teacher's brutal domination, his ailing wife (Vera Clouzot) and his icy mistress (Simone Signoret) conspire to kill him. The real terror begins when he refuses to stay dead. Nine tense minutes have been restored to this acclaimed thriller, in which devious plot twists and a seemingly dense inspector (the precursor to television's Columbo) confound the killers. Based on a novel by the authors of Vertigo, Diabolique set the pace for Hitchcock's creates shockers, including Psycho. "Brilliant. No matter how many times you've seen it, Diabolique still has one of the all-time great endings." - Caryn James, The New York Times. "A primer for a generation of thrill-filmmakers. Clouzot is an uncompromising master of suspense." - Jami Bernard, New York Daily News. French with English subtitles. Black and white.  117 minutes.