Les Innocents aux mains sales/Dirty Hands (1975)

Saint Tropez, 1975. Julie Wormser and her lover, writer and neighbour Jeff Marle, plan the assassination of her wealthy husband Louis, an impotent who drinks a lot. She hits him, and leaves the rest of the task to Jeff. Julie finds herself alone the following day, and becomes therefore prime suspect. Where is Louis' body? Where is Jeff? Is there any secret beyond a door?

Julie Wormser lives in comfort in St Tropez with her wealthy husband, Louis, who, 18 years her senior, has been forced into early retirement after suffering a heart attack. Julie is apparently unperturbed by her husband’s impotence and heavy drinking until the day she meets Jeff, a handsome young writer with whom she begins a secret love affair. The two lovers plan to murder Louis and make his death look like a boating accident. Unfortunately, things do not go according to plan. Having disposed of Louis’s body, Jeff heads off to Italy in the victim’s car, leaving Julie to face the police alone. Commissioners Lamy and Villon appear to accept her story that Louis fell off his boat after having suffered a fatal heart attack, but Julie is then shocked to learn that on the day before his death Louis withdrew all his money from his bank and put his house up for sale. Louis’s car is then found, smashed up at the foot of a precipice, with no sign of a body. With both Louis and Jeff missing, and her fortune evaporated, Julie is at a loss to understand what is happening. The game has only just begun…

A Saint-Tropez, Wormser vit retire des affaires avec sa femme, Julie, beaucoup plus jeune que lui. Cardiaque, il doit eviter les rapports sexuels et se soule pour oublier sa frustration. Julie devient la maitresse d'un ecrivain. Les amants decident de tuer Wormser en camouflant sa mort en accident de canotage.
Malheureusement, les choses ne se deroulent pas comme prevu. Julie est horrifiee d'apprendre que non seulement son mari disparait, mais aussi tout son argent… et son amant.

Director: Claude Chabrol
Stars: Romy Schneider, Rod Steiger and Francois Maistre
Production land: France, Italy, West Germany
Premiere Date: 26 March 1975 France
IMDb - 6.8 (677 votes)