Number 148 on IMDb's Top 250
The wife and mistress of a sadistic boarding school headmaster plot to kill him. They drown him in the bathtub and dump the body in the school's filthy swimming pool... but when the pool is drained, the body has disappeared - and subsequent reported sightings of the headmaster slowly drive his 'killers' (and the audience) up the wall with almost unbearable suspense until...hilarity ensues.
Trivia: The film is based on Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac's novel "Celle qui n'atait plus" (She Who Was No More). Alfred Hitchcock also attempted to buy the rights to this novel; Boileau and Narcejac subsequently wrote "D'Entre les Morts" (From Among the Dead) especially for Hitchcock, who filmed it as Vertigo (1958). When director Henri-Georges Clouzot bought the film rights to the original novel, he reportedly beat Alfred Hitchcock by only a matter of hours.
The end of this movie was so shocking and unexpected at the time that the movie makers added a request at the end of the film asking for viewers not to spoil the ending for their friends by telling them what happens (think The 6th Sense as a modern day equivalent). This movie is infinitely better then the very forgettable 1996 Hollywood remake (Diabolique) starring Sharon "I'm the only actress in Hollywood you have to pay to keep my clothes on" Stone (which is probably why I went to see the movie in the first place {she was still pretty hot in 96...who am I kidding, she is still pretty hot now}) and some unknown French actress (well, I guess they know her in France) and Chaz Palminteri in the leads. It was so forgettable that I forgot the twist at the end. But the ending of this one was the greatest part when the...oh wait, I'm not supposed to tell you the ending, sorry.
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