The Scheming Women (1954) User Reviews

"film noir" from France

[myriamlenys · 5/10 · 20 February 2018]

One of the owners/managers of a theatre dies as a result of a bad fall. His business partner says that he witnessed it all and that the fall was accidental : both he and the victim were inspecting part of the interior roof structure that needed repairing, when the victim became unwell and dizzy. Some weeks later the witness (or is it "witness" ?) is accused of murder, in an anonymous letter...

This "noir" does contain all the elements of the genre : lies, lust, betrayal, suspicion, and so on. It also contains a classic femme fatale, in the person of a very young Jeanne Moreau, who looks superb in formal opera garb or in fur coats that must have obliterated whole species of felines. (The costumes are exquisite.) Considered as a thriller or mystery, however, "Les intrigantes" isn't all that riveting : I thought it began with a pleasantly dark atmosphere, built up a nice head of steam, and then petered out. The denouement at the end had a certain "well, duh" quality about it.

The movie also contains one of the most boring escapes from a psychiatric asylum ever seen. The asylum is a pretty liberal place and patients are allowed to wander all over the beautiful park and garden. During one of his bracing walks, a patient discovers that there is gap somewhere in the wall or hedge. Later he escapes - are you ready for it ? - by walking towards the gap, stepping into the street, and walking up to the train station. And there he takes the train ! The cunning !

Still, "Les intrigantes" has its moments. The viewer gets to watch the behind-the-scenes work in a theatre, complete with quarrels, temperamental outbursts and rehearsals : there is even some kind of play within a play, what with Greek godlings and nymphs dancing and prancing and reciting bad lines.

Nifty if lightweight mixture of comedy and mystery

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 7 November 2021]

Set mostly in a theater right after the death (accident? Murder?) of its rich patron, "Les Intrigantes" is reminiscent of earlier Hollywod murder mysteries like, for example, "Murder At The Vanities" (1934). There is just as much comedy as there is mystery, and there is also a kinky sequence where a man and a woman first struggle for possession of a letter and then kiss passionately. The film is most notable for the early roles of two actors who went on to become international superstars: Jeanne Moreau as the wife of the director and chief suspect (she dominates the second section of the film), and Louis De Funes, with an unusual amount of hair, as the playwriter. Pretty good entertainment. **1/2 out of 4.

Stage plight.

[dbdumonteil · 14 July 2004]

In the forties and the fifties,Henry Decoin's forte was the film noir:"non coupable" which remains ignored today might be his masterpiece,but there are other interesting works such as "la vérité sur Bébé Donge"or "les inconnus dans la maison" .The almost documentary approach of "Razzia sur la chnouff" (about drugs) seems modern even today.And some works which are difficult to see ("Maléfices" "Bonnes à tuer" and "tous peuvent me tuer" probably deserve to be watched).

"Les intrigantes " belongs to Decoin's films noirs.An extremely good cast (Jeanne Moreau,Raymond Pellegrin and Raymond Rouleau)is very appealing.It strongly displays Hitchcock's influence ,much more than his contemporaries Clouzot and Duvivier: Moreau's face reflected on Pellegrin's glasses is a quotation from "Strangers on a train" (1951) and the use of a theater during the whole movie and for the final sequences recall "stage fright" (1950).Rouleau plays a theater owner who is accused of pushing his associate from a foot-bridge above the stage.But the script is not really good.Moreau's and Pellegrin's (her lover) attitudes do not make much sense.Why ,for instance,does Moreau hide her husband in a mental hospital when he's about to be arrested ? Even if she wants to put him off the scent,it will not delude him for long anyway.

Louis de Funes's fans can be interested in his small part of a lousy playwright.He is not the comic relief though,this is reserved to a man called "Carcassone" whose interventions are irritating.