I must confess Michel Deville is not my cup of tea.Particularly when he broaches the detective stories.A lot of people love "Peril En La Demeure" ,"Le Paltoquet" and his "Eaux Profondes" based on a Patricia Highsmith 's novel.I've no fancy for his partner Nina Companez's screenplays either.
"A Cause A Cause D'Une Femme" is a different matter cause it is a faux thriller.A Don Juan (Jacques Charrier) is accused of murder by one of his conquests who thinks that revenge is a dish best eaten cold.His other conquests help him to find the truth and to clear his name.Which is really disappointing.Which does not matter anyway,for,halfway through,the viewer has forgotten everything about the crime .The essential of the movie consists of light-hearted gallantries ,sometimes funny ,sometimes elegant and sometimes a bit boring.Jacques Charrier ,whose marriage to Brigitte Bardot gave the kiss of death to his career,is handsome but rather bland and German Helmut Griem steals the show from him in every scene they are together.There are plenty of gorgeous ladies: Marie Laforêt ("Plein Soleil" aka "purple noon),Mylène Demongeot ,the funniest of the lot ,Odile Versois in a very small part unworthy of her talent,and Otto "Exodus" Preminger's Jill Haworth who,after this epic ,would continue her career in France for a short while ("Les Mysteres De Paris") and in this movie looks like a Barbie doll.
Entertaining,but easily forgotten.Deville was to tackle the Don Juan subject again with a much better movie "Raphael Ou Le Débauché" (1970)
