Synopsis

Louis (Jean-Paul Belmondo) owns a tobacco plantation and cigarette factory on Réunion Island, but it's lonely work — so he sends away for a mail-order bride. Much to his surprise, the beautiful young Julie Roussel (Catherine Deneuve) arrives by ship, looking nothing like the picture he had received by mail. Louis quickly falls for Julie, while discovering that she is decidedly not the woman with whom he had been corresponding.

Actors (9)

Jean-Paul Belmondo(Louis Mahé)

Catherine Deneuve(Marion Bergamo)

Michel Bouquet(Comoli, le détective privé)

Marcel Berbert(Jardine)

Nelly Borgeaud(Berthe Roussel)

Martine Ferrière(Mme Travers)

Yves Drouet(M. Hoareau)

Roland Thénot(Richard)

Catherine Rosny

Production and distribution (5)

Executive Producer :

Les Films du Carrosse

Foreign production company :

Delphos

French distribution :

United Artists

Co-production :

Les Productions Artistes Associés

Film exports/foreign sales :

mk2 films

Box Office: Total results

Box office: Timeline

International releases (3)

Country	Distributor	Buyer	Release date

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TV broadcasts: details by country

About

The film is adapted from the 1947 William Irish (Cornell Woolrich) novel "Waltz into Darkness". The film features Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, and others. The film had a total of 1,221,027 admissions in France.

It was remade in 2001 as Original Sin, starring Antonio Banderas, Angelina Jolie, Thomas Jane, and directed by Michael Cristofer.

Critical reception
When the film was exhibited in San Francisco in 1999, film critic Edward Guthmann lauded the film in a review, writing, "Truffaut tells his story with terrific dispatch, as if he was thrilled by its possibilities and couldn't wait to share his enthusiasm...the result is a cool combo of film noir, star vehicle and picaresque romance. It's vintage Truffaut, and a great way to get acquainted or reacquainted with one of cinema's true masters."

The film, however, had many detractors. Dennis Schwartz, for example, wrote : "This perverse love story just doesn't fly. The two leads play unsympathetic characters and instead of getting into their character's heads they both play it as a game. It comes off as a disturbing film that seems pointless and has questionable entertainment value. It's one of the few misfires from the talented Truffaut, even with the restored 13 minutes missing from its American release that supposedly makes the film more lucid."

Source : Wikipedia