One Chance in Six

Plot :A smug gay gambler ,married to a rich woman ten years his senior , picks up men in a casino . The wife's maid suggest her lover he take photographs of the husband's "games " and blackmail him: the wealthy wife told him she would disinherit her spouse if he entertained his lovers in her home. But that night when the future blackmailer comes to spy on his partner's employer ,he makes his would be lover play an unexpected game which has nothing to do with sex : roulette russe .(hence the title:" one chance out of six " -of pulling through and getting 100,000 euros -).

This is a welcome return to the murder mystery a la Boileau -Narcejac ("les diaboliques","vertigo"), full of unexpected twists , "you shouldn't go by appearances " style ,and the suspense is sustained till the very end ,in spite of many implausibilities -but it's the rule of the game .Both the gay self-satisfied rich person and the hypocrit cop who goes to church every Sunday are unsympathetic characters,but it adds spice to the situations .A long-haired Patrick Sebastien ,an ex TV host, manages pretty well as the devilish manipulator.

The oddest thing about this movie is that you watch it to the end despite it having a poor script, mediocre acting, and a plot that is hardly original. It's the sort of thing you might have seen in the Columbo series - only infinitely better written and acted.

The only thing I really know about the lead actor (and scriptwriter) Patrick Sébastien is that he used to present a cabaret show on French TV. On the evidence of this he should have stuck to the TV job.

The police inspector is supposedly very religious but behaves the whole way through as if he was completely amoral. He has a female assistant who for some reason has a shaved head and with whom he has the obligatory sexual relationship.

One of the characters gets convicted for a crime committed by another character but any half competent defence lawyer would have got him off.

Basically it's just rubbish and I think the reason you watch to the end is because you keep hoping it might improve. Vraiment déçu.