Michel Duchaussoy Movies
French actor Michel Duchaussoy essayed supporting parts in numerous European movies. The Killing Game (1967), a cult item about a comic-strip writer (Jean-Pierre Cassel) who stages a real-life mystery, was Duchaussoy's best-known film in the United States. Otherwise, most of the actor's cinema appearances (Bye Bye Barbara, La Main, Nada) were unseen outside the confines of France. Michel Duchaussoy was one of many top-flight French actors to appear in the rousing The French Revolution--which again was deemed to have little resale value beyond Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1969
This suspense story finds a severed hand leading to the psychological demise of the people who come in contact with it. The hand is removed when the murderers fail to stuff all of the victim's body into a trunk. The mastermind of the killing is murdered by his wife and her lover in a macabre scene that parallels the fate of the first victim. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natalie Delon, Henri Serre, (more)
Claude Chabrol directs the tense psychological thriller Que la Bête Meure (This Man Must Die). When his young son is the victim of a hit-and-run car accident, writer Charles Thenier (Michel Duchaussoy) is determined to find the killer. Obsessed with avenging his son's death, he carefully records his thoughts in a diary. He travels to Paris and meets actress Helene Lanson (Caroline Cellier), who is a prime witness to the accident. After they start up a love affair, he discovers that the driver of the car was her brother-in-law, Paul Decourt (Jean Yanne). Paul also owns the auto repair shop that fixed up the car after the accident. Believing Paul is the killer, Charles befriends his son Phillipe Decourt (Marc Di Napoli). As it happens, Phillipe also wants Paul dead for his own reasons. Charles manages to get invited to the family's seaside home in Brittany in order to finally get his revenge, but things don't work out according to plan. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Duchaussoy, Caroline Cellier, (more)
- 1968
Louve (Daniele Gaubert) is an accomplished cat burglar on the prowl for a new partner in crime. When she can find no one to share in her criminal adventures, the former acrobat uses her talents to walk on wires, scale walls and pull off a heist at the home of some wealthy patrons busily engaged in social snobbery. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniele Gaubert, Michel Duchaussoy, (more)
Stéphane Audran plays the title character, Hélène Desvallées, the bored wife of insurance executive Charles Desvallées (Michel Bouquet). Charles suspects Hélène of playing the field, so he has a private detective locate his wife's lover, author Victor Pegala (Maurice Ronet). Confronting Victor, Charles tries to adopt an air of indifference, but the conversation ends with the husband bludgeoning the author to death and then calmly disposing of the evidence. When Hélène is questioned about Victor's murder, she discovers on her own that her husband is guilty. Instead of turning him in, Hélène is so thrilled that Charles cares so deeply about her that she is more in love with him than ever before. The Unfaithful Wife was directed by Claude Chabrol, the then real-life husband of leading lady Stéphane Audran. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stéphane Audran, Michel Bouquet, (more)
- 1967
Released in France as Jeu De Massacre, The Killing Game tips its hat to the "Op-Art" generation by offering two comic strip artists as its protagonists. Husband-and-wife cartoonists Jean-Pierre Cassel and Claudia Auger make the acquaintance of eccentric playboy Michel Duchaussoy. So avid a fan of the couple's work isDuchaussoy that he acts out the plotlines of their cartoons in his lavish mansion. When Cassel and Auger kill off one of their characters, Duchaussoy tries to murder Auger, then attempts to commit suicide. Packed away to a sanitarium, Duchaussoy is eventually released and reunited with the cartoonists, who have decided to avoid any future difficulties by purging all violence from their work! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Cassel, Claudine Auger, (more)
