This adaptation of the novel by Solange Fasquelle marks the directorial debut of Francis Girod. Every director obviously hopes that his or her first film will make some sort of impact and this grim and grisly slice of Guignol certainly had the desired effect although perhaps for the wrong reasons.
Georges-Alexandre Sarret, whose method of disposing of his victims' corpses inspired England's very own 'acid bath murderer' John George Haigh, met Madame la Guillotine in 1934 whilst the two Bavarian sisters who were his lovers/accomplices were each sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider who had earlier appeared together in Sautet's 'Les Choses de la Vie', play Sarret and Philomena Schmidt whilst Mascha Gonska is Catherine Schmidt, the third member of this utterly depraved ménage a trois.
It must be said that it is only the stylish performances and personalities of these three that make this gruesome opus bearable and enable this viewer at any rate to endure the detailed and lengthy 'acid bath' sequence during which the liquified remains of two bodies are ladled into buckets for disposal in the garden. There would have been very few well-known actresses who would have taken a role which required being stripped down to their birthday suit on the bathroom floor and one must salute the courage of Andréa Ferréol.
Audiences would not have been at all surprised to see the talented Michel Piccoli in this role as he is at his most effective when portraying what one critic has called 'a sinister eroticism' but Schneider devotees were genuinely shocked to see her as a nymphomaniacal murderess. She is in her mid-thirties here and is absolutely brilliant in what she intended to be an image-changing part.
As is customary in film versions there have been a few tweaks for dramatic purposes not least in the fate of guilt-consumed Catherine who is beautifully played by Mascha Gonska. The trial and execution of Sarret have been omitted here and the film ends with his marriage to Philomena, which one can only imagine would be a fate worse than death!
