Though made in French, Back to the Wall qualifies as a classic noir on account of
earnestly adhering to its quintessential iconographies, be it the doom-laden
storyline, the grim and fatalistic tone, the moody B/W cinematography, the
themes of lust, jealousy, betrayal and crime, or the darkly ironic climax. Jeanne
Moreau, who was one of the two leads in Elevatorto the Gallows, the fascinating post-noir by Malle, released one year prior
to this film, reprised the role of a bored housewife married to a rich middle-aged
man and embroiled in an extra-marital affair with a young guy. However, unlike
in that movie where the husband gets bumped off in the classic first scene, it
is the lover in a very dead state that it starts with. Once the protagonist,
who turns out to be the husband, has disposed the corpse in the tension-filled
opening sequence, the film shifts to a long flashback. The focus here is therefore
on the husband who, upon becoming accidentally aware of his wife’s infidelity,
plans to take revenge on her. However, what starts as a simple blackmailing
scheme just to scare her, gets progressively murkier, and before long, things
spiral beyond the point of no return – thus once again the world of film noirs
resolutely standing by the adage that there’s no such thing as a perfect crime.
Gerard Oury was good as the jilted, straight-faced husband trying to get even,
as was Moreau as his incredibly beautiful wife caught in an odd situation.
Music, which was used sparingly, laced the proceedings with a gloomy and tense feel
in this engaging adaptation of a Frederic Dard novel.
Director: Edouard Molinaro
Genre: Thriller/Crime Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Film Noir
Language: French
Country: France
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