Champagner Mörder (1967)

Champagner Mörder: Directed by Claude Chabrol. With Anthony Perkins, Maurice Ronet, Yvonne Furneaux, Stéphane Audran. A champagne tycoon’s (Furneaux) partner (Ronet) suspects his partner’s gigolo husband (Perkins) of murders he’s been framed for.

“French actor Maurice Ronet (u0026quot;Purple Noonu0026quot;) is front and centre here as Paul Wagner, a free-spirited playboy. He is pressured by Christine Belling (Yvonne Furneaux, u0026quot;Repulsionu0026quot;), the wife of his good friend Christopher Belling (Anthony Perkins of u0026quot;Psychou0026quot; fame), to sell his champagne business to American interests. (Represented by character actors Henry Jones (u0026quot;The Bad Seedu0026quot;) and George Skaff (u0026quot;Topazu0026quot;).) But complicating matters is the fact that after Paul emerges from drunken stupors, dead female bodies are found in his vicinity. Since he hasnu0026#39;t been quite right since an incident in the filmsu0026#39; opening business, he worries that heu0026#39;s losing his mind once again.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCritics werenu0026#39;t overly kind to this psychological thriller from French filmmaker Claude Chabrol, feeling that the plot was simply too convoluted. But, in truth, itu0026#39;s not all *that* complex, and it does have surprises in store for the viewer, including the ultimate identity of the killer, revealed to be a VERY ruthless sort. The film is extremely well shot in Technovision by Jean Rabier, and features a pleasant score by Pierre Jansen. Itu0026#39;s noteworthy for being rather irreverent, and Chabrol gets an uncharacteristic, amusingly comic turn out of Perkins. This is the loosest that this viewer has ever seen the actor. Ronet, playing the one character in u0026quot;The Champagne Murdersu0026quot; worthy of some sympathy, does a very effective job, but the film truly belongs to a fantastic Stephane Audran (u0026quot;Babetteu0026#39;s Feastu0026quot;) as the secretary.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCommendably, Chabrol may end this with the expected confrontation between principal characters, but dares to prevent the audience from feeling total satisfaction by ending the film without a true resolution.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWritten by American film critic Derek Prouse and French screenwriter Claude Brule (u0026quot;Barbarellau0026quot;), based on an idea by William Benjamin; the dialogue for the French-language version was scripted by Paul Gegauff. This was the first of two pictures that Perkins acted in for Chabrol; the second was u0026quot;Ten Days Wonderu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSeven out of 10.”