French filmmakers often gravitated toward English language crime novels for inspiration. Une manche et la belle, another thriller set in the fertile South of France, was based on British author James Hadley Chase’s 1954 thriller The Sucker Punch. Henri Vidal plays an ambitious young exec at Pacific Bank, for whom trouble starts when he aces his colleague out of a rich client. The client, played by Isa Miranda, takes a personal liking to Vidal. Isa’s secretary is Mylène Demongeot, and she takes a liking to Vidal too, in that flirtatious but elusive way she was good at bringing to the screen. Vidal marries Miranda and the two head off on a Venetian honeymoon, but rich people need staff, so the cherubically beautiful Demongeot is brought along for the ride. But three’s a crowd. Under the circumstances, wedded bliss develops a quick end date. A murderous one, if Demongeot has her way.
Can she entice Vidal into a reckless decision? Well, sure, who wouldn’t get reckless for her? Imagine if there were a murder trial. The judge: “Can’t show you any leniency without suffering professional ridicule and the loss of my cushy gig up here on the bench, but bro—I get it.” The entire world got it, which is why Demongeot became a popular cinematic sex symbol. You’ll frequently see the movie cited as one in which she was topless, but the bare frontage on display was that of a body double, which we determined thanks to the wonders of the pause button. Too bad—even playing purest evil Demongeot is special. She might be the original inspiration for the ubiquitous “Distracted Boyfriend” meme. Une manche et la belle, a pretty fun flick all things considered, premiered in France today in 1957.
