Innocents with Dirty Hands

Innocents with Dirty Hands a.k.a. Dirty Hands. is a 1975 psychological thriller film written and directed by Claude Chabrol. Its title in French is Les innocents aux mains sales. The film was based on the novel The Damned Innocents by Richard Neely. The film had 553,910 admissions in France.[1]

Innocents with Dirty Hands
Theatrical Release Poster
Directed byClaude Chabrol
Produced byAndré Génovès
Written byClaude Chabrol
Based onThe Damned Innocents by Richard Neely
StarringRomy Schneider
Rod Steiger
Music byPierre Jansen
CinematographyJean Rabier
Edited byJacques Gaillard
Production
company
Jupiter Generale Cinematografica
Les Films de la Boétie
Terra-Filmkunst
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • 26 March 1975 (1975-03-26) (France)
Running time
121 minutes
CountryFrance
Italy
West Germany

Plot

Louis, a rich man who lives quietly with his beautiful young wife, Julie, in St Tropez, has cardiac and alcohol problems. They sleep in separate rooms and, when she meets Jeff, a writer, she has an affair with him. They decide that she will kill Louis and that Jeff, after dumping the body off a boat, will lie low in Italy. To her dismay, Jeff disappears and, with him, all of Louis' money. She is left without husband, lover or assets and under police surveillance. Then Louis reappears, alive, fit, alcohol-free and ready to forgive her.

Principal cast
ActorRole
Romy SchneiderJulie Wormser
Rod SteigerLouis Wormser
Jean RochefortMaître Albert Légal
François MaistreCommissaire Lamy
Hans Christian BlechLe juge
François PerrotGeorges Thorent
Paolo GiustiJeff Marle
Henri AttalPolice Officer #1
Dominique ZardiPolice Officer #2

Critical reception

Vincent Canby of The New York Times did not care for the film:

The peculiar state in which its American distributor has seen fit to release Claude Chabrol's Dirty Hands in New York prompts me to wonder whether I should review it or search for its pulse.... When you watch Romy calmly (and idiotically, if you know your crime stories) bludgeon her husband's blanketed form in the bed, without checking to see if he's actually in the bed, you may correctly suspect that Mr. Chabrol is having an off-day and probably an off-picture.... I have no idea how much the English dubbing and editing have damaged the original, but the Dirty Hands that opened yesterday at the Forum and other theaters is a junk movie.[2]

gollark: I see.
gollark: How is it "stealing people's jobs" to replace them with a more efficient system?!
gollark: Probably are: see politics, advertising.
gollark: *Someone else* could, though.
gollark: As I said, my main issues with the government are with the legal system, regulatory capture being a horribly common thing, monopolies not really being dealt with well or at all, lack of transparency, and horrible overreach of intelligence agencies.

References
  1. JP (1975-03-26). "Les Innocents aux mains sales (1975)". JPBox-Office. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
  2. Original New York Times review (subscription required)


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