Chaque jour a son secret (1958)
Directed by Claude Boissol

Film Review

Claude Boissol's third feature as a director is this engaging but fairly anodyne suspense thriller based on a novel by Maria-Luisa Linarès. It was the second of his third collaborations with the iconic actor Jean Marais, the other's being his debut film Toute la ville accuse (1956) and his historical swansong Napoléon II, l'aiglon (1961) (after which he pursued a long and successful career in television). Boissol started out as an assistant to a distinguished roll-call of directors that includes Jacques Becker, Yves Allégret and Georges Lacombe. He also scripted several films including Monsieur Leguignon, lampiste (1952) and J'y suis... j'y reste (1954).

The plot isn't much to write home about - the intrigue is essentially second-rate Hitchcock offering few surprises. However, this is amply made up for by the on-screen rapport between the lead performers Jean Marais and Danièle Delorme (a young actress very much in vogue after her appearance in Jacqueline Audry's Gigi (1949)). Once again, Marais shows his versatility in a role that is quite different to the ones he is known for and Delorme is, as ever, a delight to watch. The best part of the film is the unexpected denouement - having driven its audience nearly mad with suspense, the film finally resolves the mystery with a sudden unexpected twist.

Film Synopsis

Some years after having been thought killed in a aeroplane crash in South America, Olga Lezcano returns to France to discover that her husband, André, a famous ethnologist, has just died of a heart attack.  In the intervening years since Olga's disappearance, André has married another woman, Hélène, who is now extremely wealthy thanks to the life insurance policy André took out just before he died.  Despite Hélène's friendliness towards her, Olga begins to suspect that she murdered André, with the support of her brother-in-law, Xavier...