''Innocents with Dirty Hands'' a.k.a. ''Dirty Hands'', or in the original French ''Les innocents aux mains sales'', is a 1975

psychological thriller film Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and ...

written and directed by Claude Chabrol from a novel ''The Damned Innocents'' by Richard Neely. It stars

Romy Schneider Romy Schneider (; born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach; 23 September 1938 – 29 May 1982) was a German-French actress. She began her career in the German genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. From 1955 to 1957, she played the central chara ...

and Rod Steiger.

Plot

Louis, a rich man who lives quietly in St Tropez with his beautiful young wife Julie, has cardiac and alcohol problems. They sleep in separate rooms and, when she meets Jeff, a writer, she starts an affair with him. The two decide that she will knock the sleeping Louis unconscious 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 as a suspect. Then Louis reappears, apparently fit and alcohol-free: he says he knocked Jeff unconscious and took him to the boat where, after extracting a written confession, he killed him. Claiming that he now wants to be a good husband to Julie, they make love for the first time in years and forgive each other. Then Jeff reappears, with a gun, saying that on the boat Louis could not face killing him. He now wants Julie and the money, but Julie refuses and Louis has a fatal heart attack. As Jeff starts raping Julie, police appear and arrest him.

Principal cast

Reception

The film had 553,910 admissions in France. Of the version shown in the United States,

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote:

References

External links

* * 1975 films 1970s psychological thriller films French psychological thriller films Italian psychological thriller films German psychological thriller films West German films 1970s French-language films Adultery in films Films based on American novels Films directed by Claude Chabrol Films shot in Saint-Tropez 1970s Italian films 1970s French films 1970s German films {{psychological-thriller-film-stub