The Body

In the fifties,in Europa , France used to rule over the thriller.No Longer so.Spain has been releasing great thrillers for almost two decades now whereas my native land lost the good recipes a long time ago.

Why do I mention France?Because I think that ,much more than any Hitchcock's masterpieces ,"El Cuerpo" reminds me of Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic "Les Diaboliques" (1955),currently in IMDb top 250.

A woman killed by diabolical lovers ,a woman whose body disappears and thus might or might not be dead;the assassin's growing terror;the wealthy wife's wickedness -Clouzot's characters are often pure evil-and the murky atmosphere ,the morgue,the disturbing corridors of a police station,the gruesome details;and like in Clouzot's (or Hitchcock's) works,a firm screenplay which does not fall apart in the first third,and grabs you till the final unexpected twist, as brilliant as that of "Les Diaboliques" and which justifies the first pictures which may puzzle the viewer.

The hero is like a puppet- but who pulls the strings?- ,a brilliant chemistry professor but a weak little boy under a matronly wife's thumb.Her appearances in flashbacks (or in sequences in which the husband is seeing things?) gives the jitters .Like in Clouzot's film,the victim is more disturbing than his/her killers.

A tense suspense which thrillers buffs must not miss!