''Ten Days' Wonder'' () is a 1971 murder-mystery film directed by

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

and starring

Michel Piccoli Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...

Anthony Perkins Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor. Born in Manhattan, Perkins began his career as a teenager in summer stock theater, summer stock programs, although he acted in films before his time on Broadway the ...

Marlène Jobert Marlène Jobert (born 4 November 1940) is a French actress and author. Life and career Jobert was born in Algiers, French Algeria, to Charles Jobert, born in Dijon, Côte-d’Or, who served in the French Air Force, and his wife, Jewish Éliane ...

and

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

. It is based on the 1948 novel '' Ten Days' Wonder'' by

Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City ...

, with the detective renamed Paul Régis. It is the fourth film that Welles and Perkins appear in together after ''

The Trial ''The Trial'' () is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, wi ...

'' in 1962. Reviewing a revival of the film in 2018, Richard Brody wrote in ''The New Yorker'' "… it’s a minor masterwork of freakazoidal cinema.… Chabrol orchestrates the grandiose theatrical tension with giddily audacious cinematography…. He reveals ravenous depravity beneath pious displays of benevolence and warns of the dangerous marriage of money and art."

Cast

as Charles Van Horn *

as Paul Régis *

as Hélène Van Horn *

as Théo Van Horn

References

External links

* *The film on

DailyMotion Dailymotion is a French online video platform, online video sharing platform owned by Canal+ S.A., Canal+. Prior to 2024, the company was owned by Vivendi. North American launch partners included Vice Media, Bloomberg L.P., Bloomberg, and Hears ...

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1971 films 1971 crime drama films Films directed by Claude Chabrol French crime drama films Italian crime drama films 1970s mystery drama films Films with screenplays by Paul Gégauff Films based on American novels English-language French films English-language Italian films 1970s English-language films 1970s French films 1970s Italian films Ellery Queen films Films scored by Pierre Jansen English-language crime drama films English-language mystery drama films {{mystery-film-stub