What It's About:

In the idyllic town of Aix-en-Provence, well-to-do Henri Marchaux (Dacqmine) cavorts with gorgeous neighbor Leda (Lualdi) to the chagrin of his shrewish wife, Therese (Robinson), and oddball son Richard (Andre Jocelyn). Meanwhile, the boorish Laszlo (Belmondo) courts their timid daughter Elisabeth (Jeanne Valerie) and violates everyone's sense of decorum with his obtuse vulgarity. When Leda ends up a murder victim, intra-family tensions boil over.

Why I Love It:

Chabrol's first color film is a welter of oedipal conflict and emotional savagery, with all of it given a slightly Hitchcockian twist. Among the excellent cast, Belmondo is particularly memorable for his hilariously irreverent turn as a drunk, uncouth Hungarian hanger-on, and so too is Robinson as Marchaux's petty yet sympathetic wife. Jocelyn is also well cast as a creepy music lover who peeps through keyholes, among other habits. Adapted from a Stanley Ellin thriller, "Tour" is a poison dart aimed squarely at bourgeois convention.