This is an unusual foray in the English language for Chabrol (albeit set in Canada, where French is extensively spoken) but a most typical mystery for him (based on a novel by popular American pulp writer Ed McBain) and, in retrospect, an underrated (if unassuming) work.The director also managed to rope in a good cast, led by Donald Sutherland (a genuine Canadian, playing a character not too far removed from his star-making turn in KLUTE [1971]), as well as David Hemmings and Donald Pleasence (quietly impressive in the role of a paedophile) to act as red herrings. However, the best performances come from the two young female protagonists (who were ostensibly assaulted one night at the film's very start) and especially the sole survivor, whose version of events keeps changing throughout the film, as Sutherland – and the audience – gradually begins to put the pieces together with every new disclosed fact. On the other hand, Chabrol's own wife – Stephane Audran – is saddled with a thankless mother role.Though the ultimate revelation is hardly overwhelmingly original, the incestuous connotations are provocative enough to make the journey there a fairly powerful one. The copy I acquired (which seems to be slightly trimmed – running 91 minutes against the official 100) was full-frame and excessively soft, but certainly serviceable for such a rare item. Interestingly, the French edition of this title contains an alternate score by Chabrol regular Pierre Jansen to the one provided here by Howard Blake.

I've just been reading the previous comments and what emerges is 1) these people are easily pleased and 2) not only have they not read the novel which was the jumping-off point but they are clearly unfamiliar with Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series of 'police procedurals' in which the 87th itself is the hero rather than any one individual cop. There is a regular team of well-drawn detectives, uniformed cops, medical examiners etc and the novels are clearly set in New York albeit a New York city with five fictitious boroughs clearly corresponding to Brooklyn, Queens, Richmond, Manhattan and The Bronx. Here Chabrol has taken perhaps the best known detective, Steve Carella and teamed him with a Bert Klinger, who is dark haired and in his thirties whereas McBain wrote a character named Bert KLING who was a blonde blue-eyed WASP (the precinct comprised all the ethnic mixes that would be found in a Manhattan precinct house). This is bizarre to say the least; if Chabrol was, as seems very possible, interested in the incest factor - which in the novel was merely the solution to a killing - all he had to do was develop his own plot around that theme but by crediting McBain, keeping McBain's title and ONE of McBain's regular cops he winds up with a hybrid that pleases no one. This is one of those movies when the audience gets the feeling that Donald Sutherland, Donald Pleasance and David Hemmings are acting in three different films and none of them is all that good. See it as a curio.

Considered by many to be a strangely overlooked Chabrol it seems to me the reason it has been cold shouldered is its sleaze factor. Not as overtly sexy, violent or gory as many films of this period it nevertheless starts rather startlingly and although becoming more measured continues to ooze a rather unpleasant odour. Ms Audran, not here the ice maiden but a drunken mother, Donald Pleasence does a cameo as a child molester, David Hemmings has his eyes on underage sex and the central theme involves the relationship between a brother, sister and niece. No not very nice at all and Chabrol treats it all as if it is very normal (like it might be in some small French village!) instead of Ed McBain's New York City. Had this been treated in a more sensational manner then it would have been a more acceptable but lesser film. Here we really have to choose between the likelihood of various unpleasant options before the final denouement. Very watchable

Claude Chabrol shooting a movie under the premises of a Marlowe's story. More American than French. Donald Sutherland claiming to be considered one of the best actors of the 70's. The movie begins with a very very frightened teenager girl going into a police station. She tells about a murder: her cousin. Sutherland, the inspector, try to solve the case by asking some usual suspects and, eventually, reading the personal diary of the dead girl where he finds the clue to get to know who's the killer. In the middle of the movie, the story turns to be more about the relationship between the murdered girl and his cousin: the brother of the accusing young girl. Finally, we can see a surprising end. Good movie just to watch once, not more. It's not strong enough because the script is not very solid. It deserves to be watched because of a Donald Sutherland in his best and a little character supported by Donald Pleasance, doing quite well.