Plot: (from Allmovie)
Marseilles, 1919. Georges Sarret is a distinguished and respected lawyer, recently honoured for his services in the First World War. He takes as his lover Philomène Schmidt, a young German woman, who has just lost her job and home. To enable Philomène to remain in France, Georges finds her a husband – who dies conveniently of natural causes a month after the wedding. Georges repeats the trick with Philomène’s sister, Catherine – marrying her off to an old man who dies suddenly so that the scheming trio can profit from his life insurance.
When an accomplice in the scheme, Marcel Chambon, threatens to blackmail them, Georges and his two lovers have no option but to kill him and his mistress. Having dissolved the bodies in sulphuric acid, Georges hires another man to pose as Chambon so that he can secure his assets. Flush with the success of this venture, Georges proposes his most ambitious scam: he will insure Catherine’s life with five separate insurance companies; a young orphan girl who is dying from tuberculosis will provide Catherine’s death certificate when the moment comes. Unfortunately, the scheme does not go quite as planned...
Lesbian content:
This highly controversial film shocked audiences back in 1974, but even today, some of its' content feels pretty disturbing I must say. The dying sweet orphan girl, Magali (Monica Fiorentini), who was taken from the hospital and is now living her last days in the trio's home is treated like garbage by Georges and Philomène. When she was first brought there, she couldn't walk by herself so Philomène gave support to her, but once they got inside the house, Philomène just dropped her on the living room floor, and neither Philomène or Georges first seemed interested to help her to bed.
The younger sister, Catherine (Mascha Gonska), who is nowhere near as cold-hearted as Philomène, is given the task to be Magali's nurse. Catherine's heart melts when she sees the poor girl, and later one evening, in the film's only moment of tenderness, Catherine carries Magali to bed where they make love to each other. Shortly afterwards, Catherine can no longer live with what they've done, and she jumps from a window.
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