The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970) User Reviews

Head-swirling collage of mystery, deception and Christian Dior...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 25 August 2009]

Secretary at a Paris fashion agency borrows her boss's car for a weekend drive down the Mediterranean coast, but her lighthearted holiday is fraught with trouble after she continually runs into complete strangers who appear to know her. U.S.-French co-production adapted by Sébastien Japrisot from his novel, with assistance from director Anatole Litvak, is beautifully designed and mounted, with attractive photography by Claude Renoir in mod-popping shades. Samantha Eggar has never been better (nor lovelier) than she is here, confusedly finding herself in turbulent situations yet determined to figure out what's really going on. Japrisot and Litvak lay on the paranoia undercurrent fairly thickly, though they also play fair with the viewer and give us a journey well-wrought with engrossing entanglements. It's also one of the chicest mysteries to mark the end of the 1960s, with gorgeous locales, cars and costumes to hold the attention whenever the script gets too chatty. **1/2 from ****

Anatole Litvak's mystery-thriller with surprises , intrigue , suspense , twists and turns

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 13 January 2022]

Thrilling and suspenseful film about a woman must find out about a crime she is implicated , to prove her innocence and exposing the question about whether the starring is hysterically crazy or is being manipulated by others. An English secretary named Dany (Samantha Eggar) with an international advertising in Paris is asked by her Chief Michael Caldwell (Oliver Reed) to work overnight at his house . Next day , she agrees to see him off the airport with his wife (Stephane Audran) , then drive his car back to the house . But heading in the wrong direction she impulsively drives on towards the Riviera . Then a series of chance encounters with perfect strangers, who claim that they recognise her , begin to blemish her ideal weekend. Now, more than anything in the world, Dany wants to see the sea ; and she goes joyriding along the way but, a strange noise coming from the boot is a harbinger of bad luck. She visits a seaside town she swears she's never been to, but everyone knows her name. Is the lady in the car starting to lose her mind? .Soon, things go wrong and get serious. Her first mistake was getting into the car.

Intriguing if overelaborate thriller shot on the sun-kissed French outdoors , this is a fairly effective thriller that really keeps the audience guessing and in which our protagonist becomes involved in twisted incidents and nighymarish happenings . That include encounters with various strangers who apparently recognise her , assault in the restroom at a service station and interlude with an enigmatic hitchhiker and the discovery of a body in the trunk of the car . Then when a body turns up in the boot of the car, she is the lead suspect in a murder she knows nothing about . Is she going crazy?. It has a strong visual style, also very reminiscent of the Sixties . Echoes of Psyco proliferate including a visit to an old dark house , but the tortuous mystifications and ponderings wear out their welcome long before the final surprising explanations . Samantha Eggar gives a nice acting as a meekc, myopic, and sentimental secretary with an international advertising agency in Paris . And Oliver Reed is very adequate and so sinisterly smooth that you know he's up to no good . While Stephane Audran is fine as as the glacially neurotic wife and she makes one wonder wistfully as she equally played in her films with Claude Chabrol. They're well accompanied by a good support cast such as : John McEnery , Martine Kelly , Bernard Fresson and Marcel Bozzuffi . It had a France Belgium remake (2015) with same title directed by Joann Sfarr with Freya Mavor , Benjamin Biolay , Elio Germano , Stacy Martin.

The picture was professionally directed by Anatole Litvak , though some confusing , at times . Litvak was born in Ukraine and stayed in Germany working . Anatole moved to France and directed Mayerling with Charles Boyer , Danielle Darrieux . His first Hollywood movie was The Woman I Love 1937 , and made a wide variety of subjects , from sophisticated comedy as Tovarich 1937 to historical drama as Anastasia 1956 , romance as All this and Heaven Too 1940 , crime drama as Dr Clitterhouse with Edward G Robinson and Humphrey Bogart and two tough thrillers starring John Garfield : Castle on the Hudson 1940 and Out of the Fog 1941 . Having become an American citizen , Litvak enlisted in the US army and collaborated with William Wyler in "Why we fight" series of WWII documentaries. Arguably his best films were the Thriller " Sorry wrong the Number" and the splendid psychological drama "The Snake Pit" 1948 , Hollywood's first attempt to seriously examine the treatment of mental illness . Rating : 6.5/10 . Well worth watching . Essential and indispensable seeing for thriller/mystery enthusiasts.

for me it brightened up when John McEnry comes in

[christopher-underwood · 6/10 · 16 October 2013]

This is okay and Samantha Eggar very good but is just not sinister enough. My print was not a very good one which didn't help but I didn't feel particularly engaged early on and although for me it brightened up when John McEnry comes in, his character is too enigmatic to seriously help one's involvement in trying to work out just what the story is. The final denouement and cumbersome and involved flashback details as outlined by Oliver Reed did not annoy me as it has some (I've watched many a giallo where the 'explanation' is more ludicrous than the earlier tale) indeed it struck me as more interesting. There just wasn't enough actually happening in the bulk of the film for one to get one's teeth into. I suppose in some giallo these gaps would be filled with rising bosoms and falling dresses but here alas were left with the best of efforts by Ms Eggar, not particularly well dressed at all.

Great film marred by bad editing choices

[TidalBasinTavern · 26 June 2014]

The film could be described as 40% Alfred Hitchcock and 60% Raymond Chandler. It initially starts out as a very glossy chick-flick with our heroine Danielle Lang (Samantha Eggar) working as a PA in a chic Paris advertising agency for her dashing boss Oliver Reed. The Christian Dior dresses perfectly capture the glamour of very late 1960s Paris. I would have been happy enough with just that, but it gets darker and better as the movie progresses. Although Mademoiselle Lang plays the confused and helpless heroine for most (but not all) of the film, it does pass the Bechdel test. Samantha Eggars performance is first rate, but I have to say I think Stéphane Audran steals the show as Samantha Eggars former flatmate. However, as a long time Stéphane Audran fan I may be biased, and in fact that was the main reason I watched the film in the first place. Most of the supporting cast is very good also.

Where the film goes wrong is that it spends far too long on the 'mystery' aspect of the plot and when the 'reveal' happens it is too rushed. I think this may simply be bad editing since there are many many scenes in the 'reveal' sequence which are cut together in the space of a few minutes. Maybe if they'd been stretched out over 30 minutes it would have made everything feel more balanced. Particularly as the 'mystery' segment starts to drag toward the end.

It didn't help that I saw a really poor print of this. I would love to see the original, I'll bet the colours look sumptuous.

The road to the Riviera is paved with secrets & mysteries

[Coventry · 7/10 · 8 November 2021]

Some films ended up on my "must-see" list simply because they have exhilarating titles! I mean, who wouldn't want to see a movie named "Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun"? The fact it stars Oliver Reed (one of my favorite actors of all times), takes place in beautiful Southern France, and got released during the peak era of paranoid/giallo thriller gems are fantastic bonuses! I only have one slight regret, namely that I watched the film on a French television channel where it was shown in its original version, without subtitles. My French is pretty good, but the convoluted plot requires a lot of concentration and I may have missed one or two details during the fascinating climax sequence; - during the mandatory summary/explanation speech in which all the pieces of the puzzle are neatly put together.

Reed stars as a wealthy American businessman in Paris, who requests his secretary Danielle (Danni for her friends) to drive his fancy US-car back to his home after dropping him and his family off at the airport. Instead of doing this, Danni spontaneously decides to drive further South, to the Riviera, for the weekend. It doesn't turn into the careless trip she hoped for, though, as she gets attacked in a gas station, and people all along the route recognize her from recent previous encounters even though she never was there before. Or was she?

"Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun" is a compelling, albeit occasionally slow-paced, mystery with a good atmosphere, stellar performances, and a surefooted direction. My main complaint would be that the plot never reveals any clues or hints to invite the viewer to guess along about what could be the big surprise twist. I also haven't read the novel on which the film is based, so can't say if this differs in the screenplay. For fans of 70s Euro-cult, like myself, the film has a dream-cast, including the aforementioned Oliver Reed, but also Samantha Eggar ("The Brood", "Curtains") and Stéphane Audran ("Without Apparent Motive", "Spider's Labyrinth"). There's also a small role for Marcel Bozzuffi as the gas-station attendant. One year later, he would star in "The French Connection", and then continue to become a regular in Italian poliziotesschi-classics (like "Colt .38 Special Squad" and "Rome: the other Side of Violence").

In spite of its faults, a very intriguing mystery

[kirksworks · 6/10 · 15 September 2008]

I'd been looking for this film for years and finally found a poor quality but watchable dub.  I only saw it once when it was first released in 1970.  It stars Samantha Eggar and Oliver Reed who teamed up again many years later in David Cronenberg's "The Brood." I remember "Lady in the Car" as being very hip, with nicely atmospheric European locations, and a story that was very compelling until the denouement.    It's got a great premise.  Samantha Eggar plays a woman who drops her boss and wife off at the airport in their car and she is supposed to drive the car back to Paris. Instead, she heads towards the southern French coast - curiously finding that where ever she goes people remember her from earlier in the day, even accusing her of having left things behind and creating a ruckus.  It's like she was retracing tracks she never made even though she doesn't really know where she is going!  Whoa!  It gets weirder and weirder, even surprising and intense.

MAJOR SPOILER NEXT PARAGRAPH:

Unfortunately, the final fourth of the film is a let down when we find out the truth is nothing more than a silly murder plot. And to make the murder plot make sense, the script gets very contrived. And I dislike a mystery where someone has to explain what really happened. In this case, it's done with flashbacks, but I'm sure they were only used because the explanation was so convoluted, it needed pictures to clarify. Even then, it's confusing.

END SPOILER

There is a character Eggar meets along the way that is just so absurd in terms of coincidence and the relationship that unfolds, that believability just catapults out the window.  With that character either changed or eliminated and the ending revised, I think this film would work very well as a non-Hitchcock Hitchcock film.  It really made me want to be in France in 1970.  Eggar is quite good as the confused woman. She was very appealing back then. This movie is hard to see, so beware of inaccurate descriptions. Leonard Maltin's book says "Lady in the Car" is about someone trying to drive Eggar insane, which is completely incorrect.  This is not a classic by any means, but something about a big chunk of it is very intriguing. It is based on a very popular French thriller with the same title. In spite of its problems, I have to say it was really great to see it again. I'd recommend it for Eggar fans, the developing mystery, and for some wonderful south of France locations.

the paranoia lies deep and crisp and even

[myriamlenys · 7/10 · 13 May 2019]

A businessman asks his secretary Dany to run a few errands. Now in charge of a fine car, Dany decides to make a small detour. When the detour becomes large rather than small she doesn't panic immediately. Still, weird little details begin to worry her. Why does the kind lady owner of a café insist that she forgot her coat there, since she never visited the place ? Why do unknown traffic cops say that they've met her before ?

Looked at clinically, this is perhaps not the the most accomplished thriller ever filmed, with the intrigue (as explained in great detail near the end) heavily dependent on coincidences. France is a large, modern country, well provided with roads and highways : you're not going to tell me that a person travelling from A to B and a person travelling from B to A are automatically going to stop at the same cities and the same watering holes, they could take any of 15 routes. The story also contains some psychological inconsistencies. At one point the female protagonist meets a young man and sleeps with him. The viewer can understand the need for sexual validation and human comfort, but it is quite hard to get why this particular man would be acceptable, given that he has all the seductive charm of a sewer rat. In real life, 99% of all women - however damaged or lonely - would recognize Trouble with a capital T and run away screaming.

Still, the plot is striking and there's a lot of suspense. It's also hard not to feel a growing sympathy for Dany, an insecure loner who is still suffering from an unhappy love affair and the resulting abortion. Moreover, the poor woman is so short-sighted that she is helpless without glasses. When strange details begin to accumulate around her, both circumstances plunge her in a swirling fog of confusion and paranoia. Who, if anyone, can still be relied upon ? Can she even trust herself ?

Watch the movie : it is quite memorable.

A gripping French Thriller made into a mediocre American movie

[gerdd · 3/10 · 16 May 2005]

Contrary to what some said here earlier, the novels by Sebastien Japrisot are gripping and full of atmosphere. There is no way that Dany Lang's trip to Marseille can be transferred to the States. If you didn't like the movie too much - like me - try to get a copy of the book, so you can enjoy the story fully. Japrisot's novels are usually characterized by a carefully constructed claustrophobic atmosphere and a precise resolution of all the details at the end. It may well be impossible to do them justice in movies that are less than four hours long.

Unrealistic? Probably, but I don't read a novel or watch a movie for a reality check - the News give me too much of that already. A difficult read it is, but so rewarding. By the same author: One Deadly Summer, Trap for Cinderella, The Sleeping Car Murders. To me, the Lady in the Car was the best.

Suspense ersatz.

[dbdumonteil · 3/10 · 9 May 2002]

This movie had high pretensions.Sebastien Japrisot is a poor man's Boileau Narcejac whose scripts are far-fetched and fall apart at every twist.Stephane Audran's presence could give a Claude Chabrol feel.And the heroine was Samantha Eggar, of "the collector" fame (1965).Add Oliver Reed and a director,Anatole Litvak, who succeeded brilliantly in suspense in former days (sorry wrong number,1948)

Eggar has been framed and she tries to understand as the plot thickens.Would her boss (Reed) do very bad things behind her back?Don't expect "les diaboliques".The ending is trite and disappointing.

Anatole Litvak called it a day after this thriller.The sixties had been pretty disastrous for him,encompassing Françoise Sagan (Aimez-vous Brahms?/Goodbye again) and absurd "historical" thriller(the night of the generals)

Dwells Outside the Realm of Good and Bad

[Jennel2 · 8/10 · 29 July 2003]

"Lady in the Car..." is not a great or even good film, yet I agree with the person who called it "oddly hypnotic." It's true that the last third of the movie is terrible, and the explanation of why and how the Reed character framed Eggar's character is ludicrous. Still, the first two-thirds are a wonderfully rendered time capsule of the late sixties. Samantha Eggar was fresh and beautiful, and her performance gave the film (or at least that first two thirds of it)a degree of interest the plot itself did not deserve. It's been fifteen years since I saw this film, but I would love to see it again. I would turn it off when the John McEnery character is introduced.

Boring, difficult to digest!

[RodrigAndrisan · 3/10 · 6 July 2019]

Petula Clark's song fits like a nut in the wall, but what's more, the movie is missed from head to tail. I had great expectations from Samantha Eggar and Oliver Reed, two actors which I love very much. Both they try their best but the result is bad. Stéphane Audran is OK, as usual, in the role of wicked woman. I also had great expectations from Anatole Litvak, who made some very good movies like "The Night of the Generals" and "Goodbye Again". But this screening after Sébastien Japrisot it's a great disappointment. 3 stars, one for Eggar, one for Reed and one for Audran.

Flawed But Oddly Hypnotic Thriller

[Jennel2 · 8/10 · 1 February 2002]

Samantha Eggar was at the highpoint of her career in 1970, and she is very appealing as the victim of an elaborate (too elaborate?) frame for the murder of her boss' (Oliver Reed) wife. The plot has a few gaping holes, and the last third of the film, during which Eggar meets up with a character played by John McEnery, loses its focus completely. Still it is a strangely attractive, even fascinating film for the first two thirds. It captures the flavor of the late sixties quite well. That is surprising, as director Anatole Litvak, best known in the US for his late forties melodramas "Sorry Wrong Number" and "The Snakepit," was in his eighties when he made this, his last feature film. I saw this film on cable about ten years ago, but the version I saw was definitely in English. Dubbed? In sum, an odd combination of road movie and pseudo-Hitchcock thriller. Could have been great, if only the payoff were better.

Samantha Eggar's Finest Performance

[info-627-664439 · 10/10 · 8 April 2013]

The film version of Sebastien Japrisot's novel, "The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun" (one of my very favorite novels) is an excellent filming, wonderfully realized by the great director, Anatole Litvak (his last film). I could not imagine that the film would do the novel justice, but it is very faithful, and honestly, I did not think the novel was particularly film-able as Japrisot's books speak very cinematically but are more so ultimately cerebral. The visualization gets edited to pieces with plot mechanics, in this case, the screenplay as written by Richard Harris and Eleanor Perry sums up some of mystery of the storyline with a large piece of edited flashbacks, and even then, when the plot is neatly defused, the beauty of the thing requires multiple viewings to tie still more loose ends in one's mind. A review on the Turner site, titled his review "A Samantha Eggar Fizzle." If Samantha Eggar were wrong for "The Collector" as John Fowles and Terence Stamp suggested during the making of it, and one were to not consider her performance in "The Walking Stick" as indeed very good, then one should see her performance as Dany Lang here as "magnificent," a role she brings the character's fluid beauty and resilient vibrancy to realization as the excitement she brought to audiences with "The Collector" (earning her an AAN and the Cannes BA Award) is brought to this film, even though audiences were not especially looking. Roles like "Walk Don't Run" and "Doctor Doolittle" had not done her career much good. Also very good was John McEnery as "Phillip" (who in my mind was not my choice for the role, but he is anyway very good and fitting as was Bernard Fresson (from Polanksi's "The Tenant") as one of the truckers (he looks very like the part with his cohort, "Toothpaste Smile" from the book). The 16mm print I saw was faded with the Eastmancolor not holding up well, and Michel Legrand's soundtrack is one of his best and most unusual. The pairing of Ms. Eggar with Oliver Reed years later in "The Brood" is not because of their chemistry here. But I think Columbia would be so heroic to put this out as one of their Screen Classics.

existential road trip in the boss's car to the South of France

[heartfield-1 · 9/10 · 1 August 2019]

A devilishly twisty plot from Sebastien Japrisot's novel curtly abridged for its transfer to the screen by director Anatole Litvak who's filmed a trippy hommage to late-60s France. it took me forever to figure out wth was going on. I was so hypnotized by the big white American convertible, picturesque French cafés, service stations, truck drivers, general joie de vivre, as Samantha Eggar goes awol with her boss's (Oliver Reed) car after accompanying him and wife Stéphane Audran to the airport. rather than return the car to their Paris mansion, she heads for the Riviera... while Petulia Clark belts a ballad celebrating the open road.

but soon Samantha starts being déjà-viewed along her improvised route as shopkeepers swear she passed this way earlier in the day. but that's impossible, isn't it? does she have a döppelganger, or could this capable ad agency secretary be losing her mind? or, is she being framed? Japrisot sprinkles in plenty of narrative surprises, keeping you distracted and misdirected. some reviewers have objected to a gratuitous fling with cheeky, scruffy, rough-trade John McEnery, but he's just what uptight Eggar needs to unwind over the Bastille Day holiday weekend.

***SPOILER ALERT*****

after trying to steal the car, he stands by her when a body turns up, before storming off because she doesn't love him. left alone, she hangs tough, coming face to face with her intangible pursuer. around 30 minutes before the end, a sudden series of flashbacks illustrates Reed's narration of the backstory neither you nor Samantha had any way of knowing. it's not the most graceful dénouement, but it doesn't detract from the enjoyably inscrutable adventure Eggar's just had. and despite the explanation, a deeper mystery abides: how do people reconcile their libidos with the constraints of respectability?