She was there one minute Lying in a pool of herself
And then she was gone the next
With a twisted neck.
O she fell from the roof to the ground....
A crowd gathers around the building as the cops shout " move along!" .Someone fell from the terrace of "Larry" 's luxury flat. Larry (Michel Auclair)had gathered for a formal occasion his ex-wife (Darrieux),his wife (Corinne Calvet),his fiancée and his mistress.An ominous stormy evening in a chic apartment with champagne served by a Chinese butler.There was a bad moon on the rise;it seemed that someone was going to get killed tonight.But which of the four women?
The ex-wife?
She crossed a lot of people
Some she called friends
She thought she'd live forever
But forever always ends.
Darrieux portrays a painter who remained loyal and true to her friends,which her ex-husband did not.
The fiancée?
She used to live the life she used
To live life with a vengeance
And the chosen would dance
The chosen would dance in attendance
The fiancée is a spoiled child,she thinks that her dad's money can buy her anything .She's pregnant by a student who disappeared but she won't care if Larry passes for the father in her folk's eyes.
The wife?
She used to have style
She used to have style and to use it
And they say it turned bad
When the truth came around and she refused it
She married Larry just because thanks to him,an unscrupulous journalist,her false suicide made the headlines.(It's thoroughly credible:a French actress did that in 1947) Like Larry, would do anything to get fortune and fame.
The mistress?
They did not find no killer
and they did not find no note.
Maggy is a shady lady,who seems to blackmail Larry ;he' d like to recover a receipt she owns.
This is a fine film noir by Henri Decoin,which does not equal his best in the field ("non Coupable" "La Vérité sur Bébé Donge" ),but where the suspense is sustained till the very end and its unexpected twist.The flashbacks are introduced in an unusual aggressive way.They begin with bells: they herald a wedding but they sound like a toll.
Darrieux and Auclair would team up again in Périer's "Meurtres en 45 tours" (1960)
Many lines of this comment were taken from the lyrics of Richard Thompson's extraordinarily gloomy song "Did she jump " on his "Shoot out the lights' majestic album (1982).
