Chaque jour a son secret (1958) - film review

Some years after having been thought killed in a aeroplane crash in South America, Olga Lezcano returns to France to discover that her husband, André, a famous ethnologist, has just died of a heart attack.  In the intervening years since Olga’s disappearance, André has married another woman, Hélène, who is now extremely wealthy thanks to the life insurance policy André took out just before he died.  Despite Hélène’s friendliness towards her, Olga begins to suspect that she murdered André, with the support of her brother-in-law, Xavier...

Although a pretty standard 1950s French suspense thriller, Chaque jour a son secret has some nice touches which make up for its rather bland cinematography and somewhat pedestrian plot.  The on-screen rapport between the lead performers Jean Marais and Danièle Delorme has the appropriate blend of tenderness and suspicion, essential to the film’s suspense element.  Despite the trivial nature of the film, Jean Marais puts in a typically robust performance, showing his great versatility as an actor.

The best part of the film is the unexpected denouement right at the end, when, having driven its audience nearly mad with suspense, the film finally resolves the mystery with a sudden unexpected twist.

© James Travers 2000

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