The Champagne Murders

The Champagne Murders (French: Le scandale) is a 1967 French suspense thriller mystery film based on a story William Benjamin,[1] directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Anthony Perkins. It was the first of two films that Chabrol made with Perkins, who is most famous for his role in Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, whom Chabrol admires above all other directors.

The Champagne Murders
Directed byClaude Chabrol
Produced byRaymond Eger
Written byWilliam Benjamin
Claude Brulé
Derek Prouse
Paul Gégauff
StarringAnthony Perkins
Stéphane Audran
Music byPierre Jansen
CinematographyJean Rabier
Edited byJacques Gaillard
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • March 31, 1967 (1967-03-31) (France)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

For his role in the film, Maurice Ronet won the Best Actor award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

Plot

Taking a prostitute to a park after drinking, Paul Wagner is attacked by unknown assailants, who leave him with a serious head injury and strangle her. Unable to manage the family champagne business, it is run for him by Christine Belling and her assistant Jacqueline. Christine tries to take advantage of Paul by selling the company, but he refuses to sign. On a business trip to Hamburg with Christine's husband Christopher (Perkins), he gets drunk and goes to a park with a prostitute, who is found strangled in the morning. Going with Christopher to the party of a promiscuous artist, Paul again gets drunk and she is found strangled in the morning.

Terrified that he may be murdering young women after drinking, Paul seeks the help of Christine while Christopher is away. She takes advantage of Paul by getting him to sign away his rights in the company. He goes home despondent and in the morning Christine is found strangled. Christopher, who now owns the business, turns up with a striking blonde, whom Paul remembers seeing in Hamburg and at the artist's party. It is Jacqueline, without the dark wig and pale make-up she wore to work, who is Christopher's mistress and has done the last three stranglings. A gun is pulled out and the movie camera recedes as the three fight over the gun.

Cast

Production

The Champagne Murders was Chabrol's first film with English-speaking actors. He filmed each scene in both English and French; much of the English dialogue was mouthed phonetically by the French actors and later dubbed in English.[1][2]

The film was shot in Techniscope format.[2]

Reception

In a New York Times review, critic Vincent Canby wrote: "Mr. Chabrol ... has made a film that has the shape and structure of a murder mystery, but which is, essentially, a funny, sardonic social drama."[3]

Release

The film was not released on VHS in the U.S. In February 2018, Umbrella Entertainment released a French-language DVD[4] which contains the 105-minute version. In July 2019, Kino Lorber released both the DVD[5] and Blu-ray versions in the United States and Canada.[6] The Blu-ray version, contains the 98-minute English-language version rather than the 105-minute French-language version, and came with the DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio and Trailers from Hell featurette.[7]

References
  1. The Champagne Murders Blu-ray Release Date July 9, 2019, retrieved 2020-10-03
  2. Cotenas, Eric (9 July 2019). "The Champagne Murders". DVDcompare. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  3. Canby, Vincent (24 April 1968). "Screen: Lucille Ball and Fonda Star in a Comedy". The New York Times. p. 53.
  4. Bechaz, Kevin (21 February 2018). "DVD Review: The Champagne Murders (1967)". Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  5. "The Champagne Murders (DVD)". Kino Lorber. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  6. "The Champagne Murders". Oldies.com. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  7. "The Champagne Murders". DVDTalk. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2020.


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