René Clément's Purple Noon (1960) is a slick thriller based on the same novel that was later made into Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). This film aptly illustrates that a good thriller does not have to be based mainly on blood-and-guts violence. This film draws its psychological tension from pace, performances, situations, and well-honed dialog.

Historical Background: Though not prolific, René Clément was a director with a deft touch. Born in Bordeaux France in 1913, he studied architecture before turning to film, first as a cameraman and then as assistant director. His first directorial experience consisted of short documentaries, made in such locales as Tunisia and Yemen. In 1946, he collaborated with Jean Cocteau as a technical consultant on La Belle et la Bête. His first major success came with The Walls of Malapaga (1949), which won the Academy Award in the Best Foreign film category in 1950. Three years later, he directed his preeminent film, Forbidden Games (1952), which also received an Academy Award. In 1956, he adapted a famous novel by Emile Zola into a film of the same title, Gervaise. Most of his early films related to World War II themes, but he later developed an interest in film noir, including the present film Purple Noon (1960), and Rider on the Rain (1970).

Purple Noon adapts a novel by Patricia Highsmith, a mystery writer born in 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas, raised mainly in New York City, and educated at Columbia. Highsmith spent most of her adult life in Switzerland and France. Several Highsmith novels have been adapted into films and some more than once. Strangers on a Train, her first commercial success, published in 1950, was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock just one year after its publication (see DavidMac's Review). Cry of the Owl, published in 1962, was adapted by Claude Chabrol, in 1987, into a film by the same name. Five of Highsmith's roughly thirty novels comprised a series that all featured the same anti-hero, Tom Ripley. The first book in that series, The Talented Mr. Ripley, was adapted first by Clément, for the present film, and in 1999 by Anthony Minghella (see skbreese's Review). The more recent version featured Matt Damon in the title role, along with Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. The second Ripley novel, Ripley Underground, came out in 1970, followed by Ripley's Game in 1974. The latter book served as the basis for both Wenders's The American Friend (1977) and Liliana Cavani's Ripley's Game (2002), starring John Malkovich (see Stephen Murray's Review). Highsmith's Ripley cycle was later completed by The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980) and Ripley Under Water (1991), neither of which has been adapted yet to film, to the best of my knowledge.

Film directors have often taken liberties with Ripley novels, changing the endings or the relative importance of various characters. What makes the Ripley character distinctive is that he is an intelligent amoral criminal with enough cunning to literally get away with murder. Readers and viewers find themselves simultaneously repelled by his activities and intrigued by his clever efforts to elude justice.

The Story: Tom Ripley (Alain Delon) has recently come to Italy from America with a chance to make a quick buck. A wealthy American industrialist, Mr. Greenleaf, has offered Ripley a cash payment of $5000 if he can entice the man's son, Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to give up his playboy life in Italy and return to San Francisco. Ripley misrepresented himself as a close friend of Philippe, but is really just a casual acquaintance. Philippe finds Ripley intriguing and strings him along, intimating that he might return with him to the States, but not having any real intent to do so. Philippe and Tom become drinking buddies and since Philippe picks up all the tabs, Tom is in no hurry, anyway, to return to America, with or without Philippe.

The pair take a quick excursion to Rome, for some partying and womanizing, leaving Philippe's fiancée, Marge (Marie Laforêt), two-hundred miles behind in the provinces. They run into an old friend of Philippe, Freddy Miles (Billy Kearns), another idle playboy, who doesn't care much for Ripley. That evening, after a few drinks, Philippe buys the cane of a blind man and uses it as a ruse to pick up an attractive blond off the street. The three go for a carriage ride. As Philippe starts smooching with the woman from the front side, Tom caresses her and kisses her neck from behind.

Later, back home in Mongibello, Philippe finds Marge in a terrible snit about his going away without so much as telling her. It takes almost a whole minute altogether for him to cajole her out of her temper with a little passionate seduction. Leaving the pair alone, Ripley slips into an adjacent room and tries on some of Philippe clothing and imitates his voice and mannerisms in the mirror. Philippe, who walks in on Tom's horsing around, finds it a bit creepy. Soon, however, the three of them are off to Teormina on Philippe's yacht, for more fun and games.

Philippe treats Tom like a deckhand, but Ripley proves not much of a sailor. The quarters are cramped, so Tom gets sent up on deck when the two lovers want to enjoy a little passion in the cabin. When Marge complains to Philippe that he treats Tom badly, Tom replies, "I want to see how far he'll go." Tom overhears Philippe telling Marge that'll he's to be dropped off on-shore so that the two lovers can be alone. In reaction, Tom sets the boat turning in circles, forcing Philippe to interrupt his lovemaking session to straighten things out. Philippe exiles Tom to the dingy out on the towline behind the yacht, as punishment. The line snaps and Tom ends up adrift, for a while. When they return for him, he is somewhat dehydrated and sunburned. The film's titles, "Purple Noon," refers to Tom's sunburn. Tom begins hatching his revenge.

Philippe and Marge get into a fight over Marge's literary work and Marge gets set ashore. Philippe begins to recognize how envious Tom is of his playboy lifestyle and jokes that Tom might be designing to take over his life, little recognizing that Tom is well on his way to doing just that. In the midst of a card game, Tom suddenly stabs Philippe in the heart with the fish-scaling knife.

Now, normally, I wouldn't divulge such a momentous detail, but in this film, all of what's transpired up to this point, including the murder, is really just set up for the main substance of film and, for that matter, Highsmith's Ripley character in general. What follows are the cunning machinations by which Ripley gets rid of the body and takes over Philippe's bank account and, ultimately, his fiancée, while diverting all suspicion from himself. All of the twists and turns in the plot are delightful – except, in my opinion, the very end, which cops out on what Highsmith intended.

Themes: Highsmith created an ingenious character in Tom Ripley and judging from the popularity of her novels and the film adaptations of those novels, she's hit upon something with a degree of universal appeal. Ripley is a remorseless sociopath who ruthlessly pursues selfish interests, which most readers and viewers find despicable and repulsive. On the other hand, we also get seduced into secretly hoping that his cunning efforts to evade justice are successful. One reason why we identify with this amoral man is that he's a real charmer, handsome and suave. Then there's a bit of grudging admiration for the intelligence and daring that he puts into his various schemes. Perhaps the most important factor, however, is that the desire to get away with one's mistakes or misdeeds is even more universal than the desire to engage in such acts in the first place. How many of us, for example, have made a misjudgment while driving, such as failing to spot a stop sign until it was too late to stop, and then thought to ourselves, "Wow, that could have resulted in an accident. I'm glad I got away with it!" Even those of us who try hard to be careful and moral in our actions don't mind "getting away with it" when we slip up. We may not like Ripley or what he does, but we can identify with his efforts to avoid paying a just price for his transgressions.

Another thematic element in this film (as well as in more than one Highsmith novel) is a bit of homoeroticism. Although I haven't myself seen the 1999 Minghella remake of this story, reviewers who have seen both report that the homoerotic element is far more overt in the later film. Neither Tom nor Philippe is predominately gay, given their obvious interest in both Marge and other women, but each nevertheless exhibits some feelings of attraction to the other. There's chemistry between the two men that even Marge feels, to an extent that makes her a bit jealous. Her feud with Philippe, on the yacht, was triggered, in fact, by her vying with Tom for Philippe's attention, as he and Tom were in the midst of some subtle macho verbal jousting. My personal opinion is that it was a wise decision, in this instance, to keep the homoerotic element subtle, not so as to avoid offending the sensibilities of homophobic viewers, but to avoid another instance of an overused negative stereotype – the gay psychopath. In 1960, Delon was such a certifiable "pretty-boy" that a degree of homoerotic appeal was virtually inevitable in his work.

Production Values: Reportedly, the 1999 remake of this film provided better character development but at a cost to plot and pace. The story of Purple Noon begins at a point that is over an hour into the plot of Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley, so there's more time, here, to develop the crime's cover-up. The newer film, by contrast, apparently provides more background and develops the characters' motivations more fully, with less time devoted to plot twists. For his version, Clément manages to sustain tension throughout. Most critics who have seen both say that Purple Noon works better as a pure thriller. The story is developed in a credible way, without undue reliance of luck or coincidence or the stupidity of police or other characters. There's little that's predictable about this film, which is as it should be for a high quality thriller.

Part of the story takes place on Rome's Via Veneto, which Fellini also used as a setting for La Dolce Vita. Cinematographer Henri Decae also gives us a rich assortment of gorgeous vistas along the Italian seaside and on the open-ocean, as well as some superbly composed close-ups. Both the camerawork and the editing are expertly rendered. The soundtrack provided by Nino Rota is lyrical but unobtrusive. The scenes on the yacht are filmed mostly free of music so that the ambient sounds of wind and waves can help develop the tension. Both the cinematography and the music are soft and pleasing rather than overly eerie, complementing Ripley's pleasing looks and demeanor rather than his sinister interior. The bright ocean sunlight contrasts effectively with the dark deeds.

Alain Delon is perfect, in my opinion, for the role of the young Ripley. His handsome, boyish attractiveness is disarming to viewers, making it entirely plausible that the film's other characters would be similarly influenced. Delon shows us just enough eye twitches and hard stares to reveal a hint of his inner demons. Delon was born in 1935 in Sceaux, France. He was the product of a broken home, got expelled from Catholic school, and enlisted, ultimately, in the French marines as a parachutist. He served in Indochina. His acting career began in 1957. Purple Noon was just his fourth film outing and his first big success. He went on to stardom in such films as Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Eclipse (1962), The Leopard (1963), Is Paris Burning? (1966), and Le Samourai (1967). He had some unsavory ties to organized crime, which did little to hurt his image as a tough guy.

Maurice Ronet was effective as the playboy Philippe. He looks a bit like Jude Law, who played the corresponding role in the 1999 remake. Ronet was otherwise best known for a turn in La Femme Infidèle (1969). Marie Laforêt had the most moods to portray, of any of the characters, and managed them successfully.

Bottom-Line: Purple Noon is a masterfully entertaining effort from Clément. I watched this film on VHS and cannot speak to the issues that I've seen raised in relation to the DVD version, which is non-anamorphic widescreen and a bit lacking, apparently, in clarity of detail. The VHS copy looked fine. The film runs about two hours and is in French with English subtitles.

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age